Selling Coins by Lottery

A recent addition to the Newman Numismatic Portal is Daniel E. Groux’s Grand Enterprise for the Disposal of the Best Collection of Medals and Coins in the United States (1855). Groux divided his collection into twenty “prizes” and offered raffle tickets at ten dollars each. Four hundred and fifty such tickets were to be sold, which valuation ($4500) was, according to Groux, much less than the total value of the collection. Groux’s financial problems are well documented (see Joel Orosz’s article on Groux in the October-December 2012 Asylum) and it is unknown if the sale ever took place. The collection itself was typical for an American numismatic cabinet of the era, with a heavy dose of European and non-federal content. Today Groux is known as the “fond old dreamer” as William Strobridge described him in an 1874 auction catalog – an individual adept at over committing and under delivering.Link to Groux’s Grand Enterprise…. (1855) on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/546724Link to The Asylum (October-December 2012) on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/510167?page=15Link to Strobridge catalog of the Groux collection, April 1874: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=511772&AuctionId=512117&page=12