15653. Coffin & Stanton (New York, NY)

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: private
Start Date: October 5, 1894
Location: New York, New York (40.714, -74.006)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 3bcb8263

Response Measures

None

Description

Coffin & Stanton was a private banking house/partnership that applied for a receiver and went into voluntary liquidation (dissolution of partnership) in early October 1894; receivership appointed and clerks discharged. Later accounting shows large liabilities and the matter proceeded in receivership (closure).

Events (3)

1. October 5, 1894 Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: United States Circuit Court Judge Lacombe to-day appointed Newman Erb ... receiver of the banking firm of Coffin & Stanton, of 72 Broadway. Mr. Erb ... discharged all the clerks in the employ of the banking-house.
Source: newspapers

2. October 5, 1894 Suspension

Cause: Voluntary Liquidation
Cause Details: Partners agreed to dissolve the copartnership and applied for receivership; cited 'voluntary liquidation' and straitened finances/ inability to market municipal securities as reasons.
Newspaper Excerpt: The banking house of Coffin & Stanton, at 72 Broadway, applied before Judge Lacombe ... for the appointment of a receiver for their affairs. ... The only stated cause for the step taken is that a dissolution of partnership is contemplated
Source: newspapers

3. November 3, 1894 Other

Newspaper Excerpt: Newman Erb, receiver of Coffin & Stanton, bankers and brokers, gives the liabilities at $3,584,824.01. The nominal assets are $9,919,420.65.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (10)

1. October 5, 1894 The Evening World New York, NY

Article from The Evening World, October 5, 1894

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RECEIVER ASKED FOR. Coffin & Stanton, Bankers, to Dissolve Partnership. The Assets and Liabilities Both Estimated at $3,60,000. Lawyer Newman Erb to Take Charge of Their Affairs. The banking house of Coffin & Stanton, at 72 Broadway, applied before Judge Lacombe, of the United States Circuit Court, yesterday for the appointment of a receiver for their affairs. After hearing their application, Judge Lacombe appointed, at their request, Newman Erb, an attorney in the same building. as receiver. rM. Erb has not yet been served with notification of his appointment, and up to noon had not assumed charge of the banker's affairs. Mr. Erb's bond is $25,000, and his sureties will be the Lawyers' Surety Company, of 32 Liberty street. The assets of the bank are $3,600,000, and the liabilities are said to be about the same. The only stated cause for the step taken is that a dissolution of partnership is contemplated, but it is said that there are other contingent causes that inspire the move. The firm is composed of William E. Coffin and Walter Stanton, and is one of the oldest and best known banking houses in the city. It has always been thought to be secure.

2. October 5, 1894 The Evening World New York, NY

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RECEIVER ASKED FOR. Coffin & Stanton, Bankers, to Dissolve Partnership. The Assets and Liabilities Both Estimated at $3,600,000. Lawyer Newman Erb to Take Charge of Their Affairs. United States Circuit Court Judge Lacombe to-day appointed Newman Erb, of 24 East Seventy-fourth street, receiver of the banking firm of Coffin & Stanton, of 72 Broadway. Mr. Erb has not yet been served with notification of his appointment, and up to noon had not assumed charge of the banker's affairs. Mr. Erb's bond is . $25,000, and his sureties will be the Law( yers' Surety Company, of 32 Liberty street. a The assets of the bank are $8,600,000 and the liabilities are said to be about the same. ( The firm is composed of William E. I Coffin and Walter Stanton, and IS one of the oldest and best known banking houses in hte city. Mr. Stanton made application for the receivership yesterday afternoon. He asks for a dissolution of the copartnership, and also that an accounting be made of all the partnership dealings between the two partners, and further, that W. E. Coffin be adjudged to pay the complainant what, if anything, shall upon the taking of the accounts, appear due to him. the applicant being at all times ready to pay the respondent whatever may be declared due him. Mr. Erb was seen at noon to-day. He said he expected Norwood & Coggeshall, and Gen. Tracy. attorneys for the firm, at any moment, to deliver the papers to him. As soon as he received these documents. he said, he would take charge of the firm's affairs. He stated that he was asked last night by both partners if he would accept the receivership, and that he consented. Coffin & Stanton, he said, had been in business about ten years. They dealt in municipal, water and railway bonds and other securities, to the extent of millions. They carried and floated the bonds of many Western cities. Differences had recently arisen between the partners and they had agreed to dissolve partnership. This step, Mr. Erb declares, has no semblance of an assignment, a the concern is sound and one or the other of the partners will continue the business.

3. October 5, 1894 The Evening World New York, NY

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RECEIVER ASKED FOR. Coffin & Stanton, Bankers, to Dissolve Partnership. The Assets and Liabilities Both Estimated at $3,600,000. Lawyer Newman Erb to Take Charge of Their Affairs. United States Circuit Court Judge Lacombe to-day appointed Newman Erb, of 24 East Seventy-fourth street, receiver of the banking firm of Coffin & Stanton, of 72 Broadway Mr. Erb has not yet been served with notification of his appointment, and up to noon had not assumed charge of the banker's affairs. Mr. Erb's bond is $25,000, and his sureties will be the Lawyers' Surety Company, of 32 Liberty street The assets of the bank are $8,600,000 and the liabilities are said to be about the same. The firm is composed of William E. Coffin and Walter Stanton, and IS one of the oldest and best known banking houses in hte city. Mr. Stanton made application for the receivership yesterday afternoon. He asks for a dissolution of the copartnership, and also that an accounting be made of all the partnership dealings between the two partners, and further. that W. E. Coffin be adjudged to pay the complainant what, if anything, shall upon the taking of the accounts, appear due to him: the applicant being at all times ready to pay the respondent whatever may be declared due him. Mr. Erb was seen at noon to-day. He said he expected Norwood & Coggeshall, and Gen. Tracy, attorneys for the firm, at any moment, to deliver the papers to him. As soon as he received these documents. he said, he would take charge of the firm's affairs. He stated that he was asked last night by both partners if he would accept the receivership, and that he consented. Coffin & Stanton, he said, had been in business about ten years. They dealt in municipal, water and railway bonds and other securities, to the extent of millions. They carried and floated the bonds of many Western cities. Differences had recently arisen between the partners and they had agreed to dissolve partnership. This step, Mr. Erb declares. has no semblance of an assignment, a the concern is sound and one or the other of the partners will continue the business.

4. October 5, 1894 The Evening World New York, NY

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RECEIVER ASKED FOR. Coffin & Stanton, Bankers, to Dissolve Partnership. The Assets and Liabilities Both Estimated at $3,600,000. Lawyer Newman Erb to Take Charge of Their Affairs. United States Circuit Court Judge Lacombe to-day appointed Newman Erb, of 24 East Seventy-fourth street, recelver of the banking firm of Coffin & Stanton, of 72 Broadway. Mr. Erb has not yet been served with notification of his appointment, and up to noon had not assumed charge of the banker's affairs. Mr. Erb's bond is $25,000, and his sureties will be the Lawyers' Surety Company, of 32 Liberty street. The assets of the bank are $8,600,000 and the liabilities are said to be about the same. The firm is composed of William E. Coffin and Walter Stanton, and IS one of the oldest and best known banking houses in hte city. Mr. Stanton made application for the receivership yesterday afternoon. He asks for a dissolution of the copartnership, and also that an accounting be made of all the partnership dealings between the two partners, and further, that W. E. Coffin be adjudged to pay the complainant what, if anything, shall upon the taking of the accounts, appear due to him; the applicant being at all times ready to pay the respondent whatever may be declared due him. Mr. Erb was seen at noon to-day. He said he expected Norwood & Coggeshall, and Gen. Tracy, attorneys for the firm, at any moment, to deliver the papers to him. As soon as he received these documents. he said, he would take charge of the firm's affairs. He stated that he was asked last night by both partners if he would accept the receivership, and that he consented. Coffin & Stanton, he said, had been in business about ten years. They dealt in municipal, water and railway bonds and other securities, to the extent of millions. They carried and floated the bonds of many Western cities. Differences had recently arisen between the partners and they had agreed to dissolve partnership. This step, Mr. Erb declares, has no semblance of an assignment, a the concern is sound and one or the other of the partners will continue the business.

5. October 5, 1894 The Evening World New York, NY

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RECEIVER ERB QUALIFIES. All the Clerks Employed by Coffin & Stanton Discharged. Receiver Erb. who was appointed receiver for Coffin & Stanton, as told on page 2, filed his bond in the United States Circuit Court this afternoon, and it was duly approved by Judge Lacombe. One of Receiver Erb's first official acts was to discharge all the clerks in the employ of the banking-house. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Oct. 5.-The firm of Coffin & Stanton, of New York, which went into voluntary liquidation today, is well known in Indiana. Coffin and Stanton are both Indiana men. William E. Coffin is a brother of Francis A. Coffin and Percival B. Coffin, formerly connected with the Indianapolis Cabinet Co. The firm has handled many bonds from Indiana. During a former municipal administration here the firm bid on city bonds and the bid was accepted. Afterwards the firm maintained that there was a flaw in the bonds and refused to accept them. It had deposited in bank here $51,000 as an evidence of good faith. The court decided that the firm was entitled to the deposit. William E. Coffin, who was on the bonds of his brothers pending the trial of the bank cases, made affidavit that he was worth $400,000.

6. October 6, 1894 The Morning News Savannah, GA

Article from The Morning News, October 6, 1894

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WANTED TO DISSOLVE. Newman Erb Appointed Receiver for Coffin & Stanton. New Oct. York, 5.-Newman 0 Erb been has reappointed ceiver for the firm of Coffin & Stanton, well-known bankers, in the United States court in a suit brought to disolve the copartnership brought by Walter Stanton against WIlliam E. Coffin, his partner. The present firm was formed on Jan. 10 last, succeeding a former firm. and Mr. Stanton declares he is desirous of disolving it and closing up the business. Mr. Cofiln also consented to the appointment of the receiver. The liabilities are stated to be $3,600,000 and the assets are said to be sufficient to pay the liabilities if judiciously handled and not sacrificed. The assets consist largely of stocks, bonds and credits. Mr. Stanton further declared that an equitable division of the assets can not be made without great loss to all parties, except by sale thereof and a division of the proceeds. This is the firm which is involved in the litigation over the city of Ironwood, Mich., bonds. STRAITENED FINANCES. New York, Oct. 5, 11:30 p. m.-It turns out that straitened finances had as much as anything to do with the receivership. To-day the Manhattan Bank refused to certify checks for them because their account, formerly a large and active one, had been drawn down to a small sum, and for sometime past they have been planting their paper, or in other words securing loans from country banks on their notes. Their paper is said to be scattered all over New England, and is placed to some extent in the west. One of their notes, on which they secured $15,000 from a Connecticut bank, went to protest to-day. It was due on five days notice and it was called last Saturday. A note for $5,000 held by a western bank is said to have fallen due two or three weeks ago. Payment was demanded, but Coffin & Stanton could pay only $500, and gavesmall notes extending over a period of protracted length. The firm had a handsomely engraved form of note, showing that it borrowed extensively. In the case of the Connecticut bank mentioned, the coliateral for the note was $6,000, Illinois Central railroad 4 per cent. bonds, and $14,000 5 per cent. bonds of the American Debenture Company. The debenture company was a creation of Coffin & Stanton's. It issued its own bonds and these were placed in trust with the Atlantic Trust Company, to secure the securities which came into the hands of Coffin & Stanton. The debenture company was authorized to issue $2,000,000 of bonds. It put out from July 5, 1893, $1,000,000 of the bonds, but up to date has retired all but $216,000 of them. The actual cause of the stringency in the affairs of the firm appear to have been their inability to find a market for the municipal securities which cameinto their hands. It is feared that the banks which made loans to them will sustain considerable losses They were rated by Bradstreet at between $400,000 and $500,000, but of late their credit had been poor. The London office of the firm was at 48 Threadneedle street. The firm is composed of William E. Coffin and Walter Stanton, and has been in existence about ten years.

7. October 7, 1894 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, October 7, 1894

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CREDITORS TO TAKE ACTION. AFFAIRS OF COFFIN & STANTON. FEW SEEM TO KNOW ABOUT THE AMERICAN DEBENTURE COMPANY-GRAVESEND BONDS PURCHASED FROM JOHN Y. M'KANE, WHICH IT IS SAID HAVE NOT BEEN PAID FOR. The appointment of a receiver for Coffin & Stanton, bankers and promoters at No. 72 Broadway. and their sudden stoppage of business, was one of the chief subjects of conversation in Wall Street yesterday. Several bankers did not hesitate to say that the breaking up of the partnership had been expected for some time among people acquainted with the affairs of the firm, and spoke of it as a case of "dry rot." The receiver, Newman Erb. who had a room in the rear of Coffin & Stanton's office and was their legal adviser, lost no time in discharging the force of clerks on Friday. as soon as he had given his bond for $25,000, and yesterday he moved the papers and "effects" of the firm to the twelfth floor of the Manhattan Life Building. The old offices presented a chaotic appearance yesterday. and Mr. Erb did not stop to see that things were arranged in the new rooms but went uptown early in the afternoon, leaving a Mr. Ludwig, who said he was the firm's confidential adviser, and Clarence D. Turney, the secretary of the mysterious American Debenture Company, to look after the rest of the removal. All that Mr. Erb would say was that he had not had time yet to investigate the affairs of the firm, but that to-morrow he would start in to wind them up with the least possible delay. A good deal of interest centres in the American Debenture Company. No one could be found who would say much about It; in fact, nobody outside the men in the office seems to known anything about it. People are also asking who Charles F. Coffin is. He is said to be a relative of the senior member of the company, William E. Coffin, but diligent inquiries have failed SO far to discover his identity. In regard to the American Debenture Company, a man who knows a good deal about the affairs of Coffin & Stanton said yesterday that "the banks were not satisfied with the bonds of the American Debenture Company, and as yet had failed to find the value for the bonds which they had believed the bonds had." A Tribune reporter made another effort to find out something definite about this company. and asked Mr. Ludwig, Coffin & Stanton's confidential adviser. what it had to do with the firm. He declared that Coffin & Stanton had only a minority interest in the concern, that they had not had control of It for several years and that Charles F. Coffin had not been the president of the American Debenture Company for two years. He insisted. emphatically, that "You boys (the reporters) are barking up a wrong tree." and said that W. D. Mahaney was the president of the company now, and that its main offices were at No. 463 The Rookery, Chicago. He was not at liberty, Mr. Ludwig said, to tell anything about the company; the reporter would have to see the officers for that. C. D. Turney, who was the "nominal secretary of the American Debenture Company," he said, was in the new office. When Mr. Turney was asked for some information about the company of which he was secretary, He said. Mr.

8. November 3, 1894 The Providence News Providence, RI

Article from The Providence News, November 3, 1894

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Assets of Nearly Ten Millions. NEW YORK, Nov. 3.-Newman Erb, receiver of Coffin & Stanton, bankers and brokers, gives the liabilities at $3,584,824.01. The nominal assests are $9,919,420.65.

9. March 14, 1895 The Sun New York, NY

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# JOTTINGS ABOUT TOWN. The Noyes will case was settled yesterday by the legatees agreeing to give the disinherited son, E. Herbert Noyes of Milford, Pa., a share of the estate. John D. Crimmins, Treasurer of the Federation, cabled yesterday to the trustees of the Irish party $1,000, making the amount remitted since Jan. 1. $3,000. C. B. Ridgeway, an agent for S. Liebman of 60 Duane street, while reading a newspaper in the Waverley Hotel at 352 Eighth avenue yesterday, fell to the floor and died. Judgments of absolute divorce were granted vester-day by Judge McAdam to Minnie Hayes from Charles E. Hayes and to Charles F. Cromwell from Elizabeth Cromwell. Judge Ingraham denied yesterday Thomas C. Doremus's application for an injunction to restrain the Stock Exchange from selling his seat, for which he paid $34,110. The Federal Grand Jury for the March term was sworn in yesterday before Judge Brown in the United States Circuit Court. John H. Walker, merchant, of 16 Reade street was made foreman. A general strike of members of the Swiss Embroiderers' Union in New York and Brooklyn took place yesterday against a reduction in wages of from 8 to 15 per cent. About 150 men stopped work. John T. Cuming has been appointed Custodian of Mortgages and Titles in the Comptroller's office. The sureties on his bond are Dock Commissioner White and James R. Cuming. The bond is for $5,000. It was said at Henry George's home, 827 East Nineteenth street, yesterday, that he had as yet heard nothing directly concerning the £4,000 alleged to have been left to him by the late S. M. Burroughs, who died at Monte Carlo on Feb. 6. The East River Savings Bank, which has been located for over a quarter of a century at 3 Chambers street, is going to move to 108 Park row for the present. The old bank building will be pulled down and a new one put up. The new structure will be four stories in height. John Gordon, a Fourteenth district Republican, has secured the contract for trucking in connection with the removal of street encumbrances by the Superintendent of Encumbrances in the Department of Public Works. The contract is understood to be worth from $3,000 to $4,000 a year. A judgment by default was entered against the New York Electrical Engineering Company of 87 Pearl street for $67,887.42 in favor of Wareham & Hughes, contractors. The judgment was for a balance claimed to be due for building a trolley line in the townships of St. Clair, Milin, and Baldwin, Pa. Dr. Robert Berlinger, 32 years old, a German physician at 141 Broome street, was locked up in the Thirtieth street station last night for performing an operation on Mrs. Annie Lefkowitz, 25 years old, wife of a tailor at 385 Sixth avenue. The woman incriminated him in an ante mortem statement made to Coroner Fitzpatrick. Her condition is critical. Judge Patterson of the Supreme Court yesterday appointed Thomas P. Wickes receiver of the individual property of Coffin & Stanton, bankers and brokers, in the supplementary proceedings brought by the Bank of Huntington, W. Va., which obtained a judgment for $9,117 against the firm. Newman Erb was appointed receiver of the copartnership property in the United States Court last October.

10. June 24, 1895 The San Francisco Call San Francisco, CA

Article from The San Francisco Call, June 24, 1895

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NO COIN FOR CREDITORS. Coffin & Stanton's Failure Assumes Immense Proportions. NEW YORK, N. Y., June 2.3-The creditors of the defunct firm of Coffin & Stanton, bankers and brokers, to the extent of more than $4,000,000 will not get a cent, according to the testimony of Newman Erb, who recently resigned as receiver. Erb was relieved of the receivership by Judge Lacomb of the United States court several days ago and Thomas P. Wicker was appointed in his place. Erb was ordered to file his accounts and give testimony before Arthur H. Masten,