Harvey Stack Remembers: Growing up in a Numismatic Family, Part 84

​As I wrote in my article covering 1978, Harold J. Bareford was a connoisseur of premium rare coins. He was willing to wait until he could find the proper example that pleased his discerning eye and passed his personal evaluation. During the decades he collected, he looked for the finest, and when he found it, he competed heavily to add each special coin to his collection. He owned many coins with lengthy pedigrees, for he felt that those who collected before him, who cherished beautiful, and rare coins as he did, also shared his goal of purchasing superior examples. Quality, rarity, strike, magnificent toning, and great eye appeal were the guideposts he set for his cabinet. He was successful, as shown in his December 1978 sale, and he would be even more so in the second sale of his collection, which we at Stack’s were pleased to present in October 1981. His greatest rarity was his Class I silver dollar, the “King of American Coins,” known as the Dexter-Bareford specimen.