Dick (left) alongside Tony Carlotto at the NH Coin Expo in March 2024. This ended up being his last coin show as a dealer.
[Editor’s Note: Thanks to Jim Rosen for penning this remembrance of long-time C4 member and numismatic titan Dick August. Additional anecdotes can be found on The E-Sylum, the electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society: https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/club_nbs_esylum_v27n28.html#article9]
It is still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Dick August is gone. I thought he would live until 100. Dick was known to all of us colonial collectors whether you focused on pre-federal coins, Colonial Currency, Spanish-Latin coins, Betts Medals, coins of Great Britain, or the esoteric. Dick went to the University of Virginia for college and later attended Brown University where he received a master’s degree in mathematics. His vocation was teaching math. Additionally, he tutored his students on his own time to be sure that they were able to advance to the next level. Unknown to many of us is the fact that Dick also collected Federal coins, a very extensive collection from half cents thru Peace dollars, not to mention Chinese coins, plus those of other countries. Until this day, I have no idea why he embarked on collecting Chinese coins. I told him so many times that they did not circulate in pre-federal America, but Dick had his reasons. Dick’s story is one of perseverance and opportunity. Every coin dealer and coin shop owner in New England knew Dick as he went to every shop and coin show in the area, and always buying the early bird pass so as to hit his favorite dealers before his competition. Ditto for the national conventions in Baltimore, Boston, the FUN show, and the ANA. His holdings will be remembered for their vastness, completeness, and quality. Dick’s collecting style was to buy coins that had the whole die showing on the coin. Color and surfaces were not as important to him as full legends, date and strike, although he was very careful not to buy coins with a problem. When Dick began collecting coins around 1958, he focused on colonial coins and gained much of his knowledge from the coins themselves and from those he surrounded himself with. He picked the brains of Bob Vlack, Ted Craige, and Q. David Bowers to name a few, and Dave Bowers often called Dick for his opinions, as the analysis of the RR-40 revealed. Dick told Dave that it was a statistical improbability that suddenly five of these “new varieties” just happen to show up over a truly short period of time. Dick saw an example of the coin and knew immediately it was bogus. Dick was clearly not flamboyant by any means, but slowly added pieces to his collection from Garrett, Ford, Norweb, and Partrick, to name a few. However, he mostly built his holdings “one at a time” from local dealers, coin shops, collectors, and shows. He would often tell me that he was just in the right place at the right time. He seized opportunity when it came knocking on his door. I am reminded of a story he told me about the Stern’s sale in Boston in May 1966. Now this story was related to me over 50 years after the event took place, so the facts might not be 100 percent accurate but as he related them to me, after the sale, he went up to the auctioneer and asked if there were any additional items that were not sold in the sale. He was told that there was a substantial holding of Betts medals and if he were interested, he could come back to the store in the morning where he could buy what he wanted, and that is exactly what he did. He was clearly an opportunist. He kept notes on three-by-five cards of coins he sold to people, who he interacted with, and what they had, so that when the time came, he might be able to purchase those coins from them.
With time, Dick’s reputation grew where he was now the go-to guy to ask for help. Current well-known collectors and dealers would soon be asking Dick for his advice, mostly for condition census data. And he wrote a number of articles, one of which was a classic article on the rarity of colonial coins based on grade, a particularly important concept. If you owned a Fugio in VF but wanted a Choice AU, that quest could be really difficult if that variety in Choice AU is an R-8. I used this article often when it came to my Machin collection. He was so free with this knowledge, always answering questions at shows or on the phone to help people out, giving advice to those who asked him. And with time, Dick amassed a fabulous collection of colonial coins, colonial currency, and then expanded to English, Irish, and Scottish, and yes Chinese. He just pounded the pavement looking for coins, one at a time. Dick did not have the financial wherewithal to compete with others in getting those super rarities or high grade coins, but his knowledge, with an almost photographic memory, allowed him to cherry-pick coins, selling coins he didn’t need or want and taking that profit from their sales and plowing it back into his love. That unique ability of his to memorize die varieties led him to discover new varieties and procure wonderful specimens in the colonial series. His favorite love was Machin’s Mills, a series in which he discovered three varieties, V.4-71C, 21-87C, and 24-72C. What might not be known to Vermont collectors, is that the RR-39 was added to the Vermont list because of Dick. He lobbied those he needed to, convincing them that the Miller 1-I was also a Vermont, hence the Vermont series was now 39 coins not 38.
To say that Dick was frugal is an understatement. In the thirty-five years that I knew him, he only had two cars, and he drove them till exhaustion. Yet he was worth millions. But clearly, he would rather have a rare Vermont than a new “used” car. We roomed together at countless FUN shows, ANAs, and C4 conventions, and only recently did he agree to stay at the Rosen Center at the FUN show. For years, we stayed at the worst Days Inn in Orlando because Dick liked the fresh orange juice their restaurant had. No amount of discussion could ever convince him otherwise.
A few things that people probably didn’t know about Dick is that he was a runner beginning in his early 30s, and ran marathons. When rooming with him at the FUN show in the 90s, he would get up at 6 and take off for a run. In his later years when running was no longer in his sights, he turned to coaching track and one of the individuals he coached went to the Olympics.
Additionally, Dick was a master gardener, installing and maintaining gardens for his friends, including helping me at my summer home in Kennebunkport, ME. He would often call me at 7AM just to chat right after he finished watering his garden outside his apartment, “isn’t everyone watering at 6AM?” …“no” I replied. He also raised guppies, bred them, and sold new varieties to fish stores. One last thing that I know will surprise everyone as it did me, Dick loved writing poetry. Something one would never have guessed.
Sadly, Dick did not share his collection with the collecting fraternity, although he did share some of his series with close friends. With great trepidation, he brought his total Massachusetts copper collection to my home for photography. He just felt way too nervous taking them out of the bank to bring them to a show. And sadly, a theft coming from a show only increased that uneasiness to bring out his coins. I was one of the lucky ones to have spent 8 hours in his bank’s safe deposit box room looking through his holdings. By the end of the day, I was having trouble telling a Vermont from a Machin. I went that entire day without eating a morsel of food. But when Dick’s holdings are sold, one will grasp the amazing extensiveness of his holdings, the completeness of his state coinages and Fugios, and realize what an amazing collector he was to acquire all these coins on a teacher’s salary.
Dick’s last months were tough on him. And living by himself did not help the situation. I’d call him daily to check on him and review what meds he had to take and which ones he could pass on. Dick did not like doctors, but he trusted me. Sadly, Dick decided on his own it was time to check out. I really had thought he would rival Eric Newman in years. But the one regret I had in my relationship with Dick is that I did not know him long enough. Fortunately, I kept his correspondence with me, which brings back fond memories whenever I read them. He will be sorely missed.
