Louis Eliasberg

Louis Eliasberg

Louis Eliasberg is considered to be the “King of Coin Collectors” when he was given the name in an issue of Life Magazine in April 24,1953. Louis Eliasberg is known for growing is collection the old fashioned way through hard work and wise investments as he wasn’t born into wealth like many other collectors that had the means to outright purchase their collection right away. The fact that he was a normal American man that was able to work hard and create such an incredible collection is part of the reason that many collectors still consider Louis to be one of the most famous collectors in U.S. history.

Born in Selma, Alabama in 1896, Louis Eliasbeg moved in 1907 to Baltimore, Maryland with his family where he spent most of his life. Eliasberg was known as a businessman that made money just as well as he collected it. In 1919, with his partners acquired capital Service Corporation and renamed it to the Finance Company of America. Coincidently, this is around the same that ads seeking 1913 Liberty nickels first started to appear. Louis would spend much of his time attending many different auctions throughout the country in search of collections that would complete his own. There were reports my many different people of Louis spending as much as $100,000 on one occasion for one collection. By 1950, the remaining coins form Eliasberg’s collection was put up for sale allowing him to finally complete his collection of America coinage. This was when he would officially become the undisputed “King” among coin collectors and members of the numismatic associations. This is the reason that most still consider him to be the most famous U.S. coin collector of all time.