Dale Friend: A Rememberance
/The first time I can recall interacting with Dale Friend was around 15 years or so ago. I was setting-up at a coin show, and he came up to my table asking to see a Proof 1864 gold dollar that I owned. He introduced himself and told me that he was working on assembling a complete 1864 Proof gold set (a challenge which seems impossible today!) and that he needed just the gold dollar to be complete. I remember laughing and telling him, “I’d have thought the gold dollar would have been the first coin you bought for the set not the last coin.”
There was one caveat: the coin I owned was in an NGC holder and Dale would only buy PCGS graded coins. I told him this wasn’t a problem and that I would try and cross the coin for him. I submitted the coin to PCGS and 24 hours later, I had it back; I now in a PCGS holder. I paged Dale to the table and showed him the coin. Dale asked me the price and I told him I would honor what I quoted him when the coin was in its original holder, even though I could have easily raised the price by $2,500. He wrote me a check and went away happy. In fact, in every deal I did with Dale, we both went away happy.
Dale Friend, seen in a PCGS video discussing the set registry.
Dale was a man of his word and a collector’s collector; one of the few I have met who really understood the dynamics of the coin market and who appreciated choice, original coins; especially Barber and Bust half dollars and early silver dollars. Dale was more of a dabbler when it came to gold coins, but he did have a nice collection of early half eagles at one time with many of the coins graded MS63 and MS64.
Dale was best known for his outstanding sets of Liberty Nickels, Barber half dollars, and Bust half dollars. His Barber half dollar set was started in 1992 and if I remember correctly, it was his first serious collection as an adult. His star coin was the awesome PCGS MS68 1892-O Micro O from the Eliasberg and Clapp collections, which is universally regarded as the single best Barber half dollar in existence. As he became a more sophisticated collector, he began collecting Bust half dollars and dollars by Redbook variety. All of these sets were exceptional and some of Dale’s halves were sold at the 2018 ANA auction by Heritage. If I’m not mistaken, his lovely set of Bust Dollars remains intact.
Dale had a very good eye when it came to silver coinage. I always would kid him about his coins having “The Dale Friend Look” which was a toning pattern where the centers were lighter than the borders and the deeper toned areas were boldly iridescent. Coins kept in certain old storage albums sometimes come with this appearance, but it is really hard to find many early half dollars/dollars with a DFL appearance. Funny story: to this day, I still mark a coin DFL (for Dale Friend Look) in an auction catalog when I am viewing lots.
I always enjoyed talking coins with Dale. He was passionate and opinionated. If you were a dealer and you screwed Dale on a coin, you were placed on his Bad List but if you treated him well, he was loyal and generous. Dale vouched for me with a collector-acquaintance of his who didn’t know me and I wound up representing him as his agent for well over $1,000,000 of coins at the first three Pogue sales. Dale didn’t have to do that, and I was truly touched by his support.
Dale and his wife Stacy were really fun to be around. They truly loved each other and when my wife Irma and I were at shows with the Friends, good conversation and plenty of laughs were always involved.
I last spoke to Dale a few weeks ago. He was recovering from major heart surgery but he sounded great and told me he would see us soon. He also wanted to share that a Barber half dollar that I purchased for him at the Larry Miller collection sale earlier in 2021 had crossed from NGC66 to PCGS66 (as I had said it would), and that he was grateful for my advice.
Dale, I’ll miss you a ton. You were a great friend and you meant a lot to me, and to many others.
