Terry Denman Collection of Middle Dates Part 1

An Introduction to

THE TERRY DENMAN COLLECTION OF MIDDLE DATES by Tom Webster

It’s my pleasure to pen this introduction for Terry’s Middle Date Large Cent Collection. This collection will be sold in two parts, the first in August 2025, at the ANA in Oklahoma City, OK, and, the second date is yet to be announced.

Terry was born in 1960 in Traverse City, Michigan and still resides there today. He is a small business owner in the automotive industry. His pursuit of collecting coins began at about eight years of age, sorting through penny rolls. By age eleven he moved up to bags of pennies and silver coins that his dad would bring him from the local bank. At age thirteen, Terry told his dad, who was also in the automotive industry, that he needed $75 dollars to buy a coin that he had found at a local coin shop. In describing the coin to his

Walt, Terry and Tom

dad, his dad exclaimed, “Are you nuts?” Terry had found a 1909-S VDB. The younger Denman, struck a deal with his dad to gain the capital needed to make that purchase. His dad said, “if you strip the wire from these cars, I’ll give you the money to buy the coin.” Terry recounts that the wire cutters were so large that he couldn’t hold them correctly to cut the wire but somehow, he still finished the job. During the time it took to complete the job, two things happened. That particular coin was sold and copper prices had dropped. His dad still paid him the $75 dollars and kept the wire, which Terry figures was worth $150 after copper prices rebounded. Even though the original coin he wanted was sold, he bought another one, my guess in the quality Denman is now known for. It was likely a valuable coin. The young coin collector, was on his way… Long ago, Terry told me that he has collected complete sets of ALL the series of Federal US coins with the exception of the ultra-rarities. He has had rarities in these sets he assembled, such as Pittman’s 1802 Half-dime, the 1876 CC 20 cent piece, the 1842 small date proof quarter, and others… His discerning eye was already developed before he began assembling his large cent collections.