Michael S. Fey Acquires Leroy Van Allen's Numismatic Assets

Ironia, NJ — Michael S. Fey, Ph.D., of Rare Coin Investments (RCI) acquired the Numismatic Assets of Leroy Van Allen for an undisclosed sum. The assets included all of Mr. Van Allen’s intellectual property which includes his landmark reference book, The Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars, and 17 monographs, the most popular of which is Wonders of Morgan Dollars. Included was approximately 18,000 photos of Morgan and Peace silver dollar VAM numbered varieties (VAM is an acronym for Van Allen-Mallis varieties). A George Mallis, co-author of the VAM Encyclopedia passed away in January 2000 leaving his copyright portion of the VAM Encyclopedia to Leroy Van Allen.

Also included in the sale was Van Allen’s cancelled U.S. dies and collars and fabricated dies and punches which were used as models to prove his theories on overdates and over mintmarks, as well as about 100 autographed books from his reference library, some dating back to the late 1800’s.

The sale also included approximately 425 rare Morgan and Peace dollar die varieties, errors, rotated dies, about 700 Buffalo nickel die varieties and rotated dies, and a variety of U.S. and foreign coins.

According to Fey, “This marks the passing of a torch to a new generation of dedicated specialists who intend to continue Leroy’s efforts to research, catalog and educate dealers and collectors on Morgan and Peace silver dollars”.