I occasionally stop by the shop of a local coin dealer who is getting up there in his years. When I stop by we have a good time talking about coins and I think he is somewhat taken aback by fairly sizable knowledge base, information I have accumulated through dedication to reading Numismatic literature of all kinds. During one of our recent conversations he offered to sell me all of his old copies of "The Numismatist" which he has accumulated and preserved over his many years as a Lifetime Member of the ANA. I told him that I would most certainly take him up on the offer and that I would give him $50 as well, despite his insistence that I take them for free. I was thinking that he would give maybe 4 or 5 dozen issues spanning a great number of years. Well, I was wrong. I went to his shop yesterday and spent at least 45 minutes loading box after box into my SUV. I now have in my possession EVERY SINGLE ISSUE OF THE NUMASMATIST FROM NOVEMBER 1954 through DECEMBER 2002. This may sound somewhat unbelievable but not a single issue is missing, and whats more, they are all in PRISTINE CONDITION. They were all stored in climate controlled areas. He kept them organized in chronological order and wrapped each year's 12 issues in plastic and kept them stored beautifully. Below are a couple pictures, one shows the entire lot in the back of my CRV and the second picture is of the first part of the collection beginning with NOV. 1954 thru DEC 1965. I can fit about a decade worth of issues on one shelf of my bookcase and I am in the process of making room for the rest of the collection. This is a TREMENDOUS Information Resource for any coin collector and I feel lucky to have them. This being said I have to know (if anyone happens to have the answer) what would a collection like this be worth? Any guesses or general thoughts would be appreciated!
Awesome Find! You should find out what the old man likes to drink and send him over a bottle of it with a thank you note :yes:
There's one seller on eBay listing most of the older issues (1954-1963) for $4.76 each BIN plus shipping. But the information you now have is priceless.
There is indeed a wealth of information contained in those magazines. But it's kind of like books, unless you read them all and study them all it does you little good. I used to do the same thing with CW, NN, and TN, save them all. It got to the point that I had a stacks of them almost floor to ceiling. Now that may sound like a good thing, but unless you can remember specifically which issue had what info in it, looking it up later can be a daunting task. I have what I consider an exceptional memory, and I couldn't begin to do it. So when I moved clear across the country, just about all of that went in the trash. I still have a few years worth of The Numismatist, but am considering giving those away.
