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Lawsuit Claims Info Valuable
steve contursi, eb stamp-on-breast Brasher doubloonBy Numismatic News
August 20, 2009
steve contursi, eb stamp-on-breast Brasher doubloon

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A lawsuit has been filed against California dealers Steve Contursi and Don Kagin by Michigan hobbyist Bill Swoger over the value of information Swoger says he supplied to them that makes the dealers' "EB" stamp-on-breast Brasher doubloon more valuable.

The coin owned by the two dealers was purchased by Contursi for $2.99 million at a Florida United Numismatists auction in 2005 and he then arranged for Kagin to take a one-third ownership. All Brasher doubloons have a 1787 date, but six have the "EB" initials of Ephraim Brasher on the wing. Brasher was a New York jeweler. Brasher doubloons were made by him. A doubloon at the time was worth roughly $16.

Swoger contends that the initials-on-breast doubloon was not struck before the other six as popularly believed, but last, and sufficiently later that it conforms to weight standards from the Coinage Act of 1792, giving this piece the distinction of being the first federal coinage and hence enhancing its value to $10 million.

The suit filed in Orange County Superior Court, according to the Los Angeles Times, alleges that Swoger sought $500,000 for the information, was met with a counter offer of $250,000, but only received a coin worth $35,000.

Contursi issued a statement via e-mail: "I greatly regret that Mr. Swoger has chosen to sue me and my partner. We never sought anything from Mr. Swoger regarding the Brasher doubloon and never benefited in any way from any information he volunteered to us. The lawsuit is utterly frivolous and I urge him to withdraw it."





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Comments
On August 21, 2009 William Harper said
Contursi: " We never sought anything from Mr. Swoger .."

Bart Simpson:  "I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything, man!"
On August 21, 2009 michael said
The previous owner should sue swoger for withholding information that would have netted him more at the 2005 auction!
On August 22, 2009 Paul Bosco said
Bill Swogger once saw a coin in my case at the Chicago International show, a 12,800 Reis Brazilian gold coin, counterstamped with "Script B" over the eye. "Give me $100 and I will give you information about that coin that is well worth the money." I did, and he did. It was actually a script JB stamp for John Burger, a neighbor of Ephraim Brasher. Both were changing the weights of gold coins --"regulating" them-- to circulate for $8 or $16, per new Federal law. I auctioned the coin for $15,000 in the US Colonial section of my 1997 Hal Walls sale, so the $100 was about 1% of the increase in value from Bill's tip. I had thought the counerstamp was West Indian.

I don't know, one way or the other, if the lawsuit has merit. Some might say a $35K coin was pretty good for a few sentences of info, regardless of the "additur valorum". I don't have an opinion. However, the numismatic questions are more interesting than the legal ones. What are the weights of Brasher's other gold coins (New York AND Lima-style)? If the famous doubloon was an attempt to procure a coining contract in New York State, could the breast-punched piece, at the 1792 Federal weight, have been a revived attempt to procure a coining contract, this time from the still-mint-less US government? Are the Punch-on-Wing Brashers private issues, but is the Punch-on-Breast piece the first US pattern coin? Much to ponder! Perhaps Contursi has both the first US silver dollar AND the first US gold coin.

--Paul Bosco

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