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Old January 24th 06, 06:28 PM posted to rec.collecting.coins
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Default RUSSIA: Irwin Goodman collection

I just recently purchased a catalog of the auction of the Irwin
Goodman collection of Russian coins, mostly dated pre-1917 and almost
exclusively silver coins. The catalog is entirely in Russian. Although
there is no indication of who published it or the date of publication,
the contents lead me to believe that it was published shortly after
the auction of this collection (February 1991) but before the Soviet
Union split up and became Russia + independent states (previously
"autonomous republics").

I'm sure that anyone who has been collecting Russian coins for longer
than I have (only about a year and a half) will know about this
collection and the auction. It is quite impressive. The collector
is/was Canadian/American, amassed an incredible collection of Russian
and Chinese coins as owner of a furniture store (or factory?) in
California, and became one of the most "voracious" auction purchasers
in history. According to the Russian introduction, he regularly
attended auctions all over the world during his business trips, and at
one of the important Sotheby's auctions of Russian coins in 1969 in
Europe, he apparently bought just about every 2nd lot! He always
attended the auctions in person and never used a proxy bidder.

I was hoping to find some more literature about this -- e.g., where
the auction took place, perhaps some better pictures of the coins sold
-- but Google turned up zilch! Maybe I'm mis-spelling his name (all I
have to go by is the Russian transliteration, i.e.: "IRVIN GUDMAN")??

Thanks for any tips!

--
Bob Hairgrove

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