One-of-a-kind coin returns to New Orleans
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl112008mlcoin.1d1d5c1d1.html?npc
WWL-TV Lousiana
One-of-a-kind coin returns to New Orleans
10:42 PM CST on Thursday, November 20, 2008
Mike Hoss / Eyewitness News
The airport is often about a clutching goodbye, but
one day in September it was about a homecoming.
That was the day New Orleans coin collector and
dealer Paul Hollis walked through Armstrong
International Airport in Kenner, flanked by an
armed security guard and a State Police escort.
Hollis walked through the airport, carrying in
his hand a one-of-a-kind coin, sold at auction
two years ago for a price that reached into
seven figures.
"Well, traveling with a coin worth millions of
dollars is, I mean it's fun, but at the same
time, you've got to be a little guarded,"
Hollis said.
He arranged to have the coin shown here in New
Orleans on loan, and flew to Florida to pick it
up from an anonymous collector, then held it
tightly in his hands for the next five hours.
"I'm not putting it in my sock," he joked.
"I'm not putting it in my briefcase. I'm
going to carry this coin the entire way back
to New Orleans."
A short drive later, from the airport to the
French Quarter and the Old U.S. Mint, meant
the coin was back in the Esplanade Avenue
building where it was minted 164 years ago.
"To bring it back here, I couldn't help it.
I got goosebumps," Hollis said.
"I got goosebumps when I landed and when I
walked into the New Orleans Mint, to know
that that coin's been brought back over a
century and a half later. It was really,
really, exciting for me."
It is an 1844 $10 gold coin, a little
bigger than a quarter. The mint churned
out more than 100,000 that year, but only
one coin was an 1844 "O" proof, with the
"O" standing for Orleans. It was struck
specifically as a gift for President
James Polk.
"It was great to be able to return it to
the place where it was minted," said Greg
Lambousy of the Louisiana State Museum.
"The facility has a long history and this
is one of the premier coins that was
minted here."
Part of the desire for the coin is the
mystery that surrounds it. Hollis says
it's so rare that initially it wasn't in
any collector books. In 1911, there is one
mention, when the secretary of state at
the time, William Wooden, sold it at an
auction.
But then it disappeared for 90 years.
"And not just off the market where it wasn't
available for sale. Nobody really knew
about the coin," Hollis said.
That was until it resurfaced six years ago
at a New York auction. That's where Hollis
saw it first, and knew then Louisiana had
to see it as well.
"There's no coin to me like the 1844 'O,'
and to bring it back to this city was a
real honor for me, a real privilege," he
said.
The one-of-a-kind coin is only here in
New Orleans temporarily, on display for
the next couple of months, but if Paul
Hollis has his way, someday it will
return to Louisiana for good.
"This is a coin that I'll track throughout
my lifetime and hopefully one day it will
be a coin that I'll own," Hollis said.
"I'd like to do a long-term display at
the New Orleans Mint."
The 1844 "O" proof will be on display at
the Old U.S. Mint until January 18, then it
goes back to its owner in Florida, tightly
in Paul Hollis' hands, the same way it
got here.
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