Featured Remember the Old "Brick & Mortar" Coin Shops ?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Al Kowsky, Mar 27, 2021.

  1. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Long before the computer age collectors used to shop for coins at coin & hobby shops, shows that usually included stamp dealers, & through periodicals like the Coin World newspaper. Digital or E-auctions didn't exist back then & neither did slabbing companies like PCGS & NGC. Throughout the 1970s I was a serious collector of ancient & world coins, & medals & antiques. In the late 1970s the precious metals began to skyrocket in price, & having grown weary of doing factory labor (I was a machinist for Gleason Works in Rochester, NY) I decided to get in on the action of precious metals :D. Combining this with my love of coins & antiques provided me with the excuse of quitting my job in 1980 & getting my feet wet. I rented a two room store from my parents on East Main St., Rochester, NY & the adventure began. I had an agreement with my father & a large precious metal smelter in Buffalo, NY to dispose of any gold & silver that came into the store. My father agreed to be the courier going to Buffalo once a week for a percentage of the take. He had driven an armored truck for a local bank & carried a .38 special revolver, which freed me from leaving the store. I advertised in the morning & evening editions of the local newspapers & ran large quarter page advertisements in a weekly neighborhood newspaper, like the add below.

    IMG_0773.JPG

    I still have the coin pictured in the add & later got it slabbed as a memento ;).

    2420230-005, AK Collection.jpg

    Rochester was a thriving city back in the early 1980s with a population of well over 300,000, today it is about 200,000 :(. With Kodak going bankrupt & Xerox laying-off thousands of laborer's people have fled the city. Most of the coin market action was American coins & very few collectors were interested in ancient coins of any kind. Nice looking denarii from the 2nd & 3rd centuries could be bought for $15-20. Late Roman solidi like the coin pictured below could be bought at coin shows for $150.

    Theodosius II, Sear 21127.jpg
    Common Greek tetradrachms like the coin pictured below sold in the $100-150 range. I had this coin priced at $125 & it never sold :(. Five years ago I put it in a Heritage auction & it sold for $660 :happy:.

    Pamphylia, Side, 2nd-1st cen. BC.jpg
    Pamphylia, Side, Circa 205-100 BC, AR Tetradrachm: 32 mm, 16.43 gm, 12 h.

    The interest in Byzantine bronze coins was almost non-existent :smuggrin:. I had the large 40 nummi coin pictured below priced at $35 because it was a high grade coin. I did get a couple offers of $25 for the coin but wouldn't go down :sour:. So that coin ended up in a Heritage auction 10 years ago & sold for $373.75 :p. Today it would bring much more.

    Justinian 40 nummi, Antioch, Syria (2).jpg
    Justinian I, AD 527-565 (struck year 16, AD 542/3), AE 40 Nummi: 22.71 gm, 40 mm, 6 h. Theoupolis Mint, Antioch. Sear 219.

    My early years in the store were good ones, however, with metal prices crashing & the advent of the slabbing companies & the computer age, the coin market made a dramatic change. I wasn't ready for that change & family matters dictated a different direction for me, so I went back to factory work in 1987 with no regrets. I still enjoy studying & collecting ancient coins & finally adjusted to the computer age :D.

     
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  3. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    I remember the brick and mortar shops. There are a few around. Most of them are of the not so friendly types. There are a few in the Houston area. I don't go to any of them anymore. It seems that if they don't know you they don't want anything to do with you. I've been at this for over 70 years and a couple of them treated me like a novice and actually tried to mislead me. I don't trust any of them enough to bother.
     
  4. J.T. Parker

    J.T. Parker Well-Known Member

    Hello Inspector43,
    I also live in the Houston area and have had the same experience with several Houston coin shops in the past. However, Royal coins in Bellaire treated me extremely well on the last 2 visits. I have not been back for several years now so, depending on their service staff, customer service could have changed..Hopefully not.
    J.T.
    Addendum:
    Inspector43, Don't you find that generally speaking, Customer Service
    has gone-a-wanting, at least in many Houston shops, for several years now? One of the reasons I enjoy visiting Austin...very helpful 'Staffs' across the boards from Home Depot to H.E.B.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2021
  5. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    The last coin show I went to was the one in Bellaire. The dealers were very stuck up and spent most of the time talking to their friends while potential customers stood around and couldn't get close to the tables. I was very disappointed and have never gone back. I'm not rich, but I have disposable resources if I see the right thing. My collections are virtually complete so all I need is that one that I see and can't live without. You don't run into those on eBay.
     
  6. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    Yes I do. An example: my wife is a CHL holder in Texas, has been for many years. She is also very knowledgeable and a good shot. She went into Carter Country without me. She was just a dumb blonde shopping. They treated her as a dumb blonde. A couple of years later I ran into Carter Country at the big gun show in Houston. One of their barkers approached me. I told him that I can't even look at his stuff or my wife would shoot me. They cut off me and a family of gun enthusiasts. And, I get to keep the girl that can usually out shoot me.
     
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  7. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    I've never been to a coin show. No brick and mortar stores in the Bay Area sell ancient coins in my experience, and there are very few of those left, anyway. When I started out collecting when I was 11 there was a coin shop in a mall in Pearl City, Hawaii which had a tray of ancients so that's how I got my start.

    My first purchase was an antoninianus of Gordian III for $30. When I moved to the Bay Area at age 14 I got to know Frank L. Kovacs who ran an auction and mail order business out of his office in SF. I got out of collecting when I went to college, but re-started back in 2014 with some uncleaned lots. It's nice to hear that some shops are still are operating and have good customer service.
     
  8. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    I'm afraid "brick & mortar" coin shops are dinosaurs of a bygone era :rolleyes:. They provided a valuable face to face relationship between buyer & seller that rarely exists anymore. Being able to see & handle an actual coin instead of viewing a digital photo that may or may not be accurate is important. Going to coin shows & meeting new collectors, making new contacts, & haggling with dealers was an important part of the hobby. With the Covid-19 pandemic we have lost that too...
     
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  9. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    Remember them? I still go to one!
     
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  10. Terence Cheesman

    Terence Cheesman Well-Known Member

    I remember the first time I was able to walk into a coin shop. I was 10 years old and we were visiting my grandmother in Quebec City. The shop was located within the walls of the old city and was a place filled with treasures. I bought a couple. Since then I have been to many. Brick and Mortar coin shops seem to live a very precarious existence. They rarely appear to survive past the point when the founder decides to pack it in. When I started collecting ancient coins I was able to purchase a few from local shops though I very quickly learned that I would have to go further afield to buy the coins I wanted. This I did buying from such as Tom McKenna, Frank Kovacs, and many others.
    Over thirty years ago a collector-dealer started a shop which he called Calgary Coin Gallery. Unlike most of the dealers he actively went to shows both in the UK as well as the US and bought coins back to Calgary. Thus I remember taking many trips down there to see what he had brought back. At this time there were many hoards available at these shows and so I could go and buy huge numbers of these coins at relatively modest prices. He is still active however he is close to retirement and I am not sure of the future of his franchise. Still it was always a pleasure to go there and see what coins he had. Which includes this one.
    C. Alburius Geminus Ae Quadrans 134 BC Obv. Head of Hercules wearing lion skin headdress right. Rv Prow of galley right Crawford 244/3 RBW 1008 4.72 grms 18 mm 244-c.JPG
     
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  11. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    CHL?
     
  12. Heavymetal

    Heavymetal Well-Known Member

    Concealed Handgun License
     
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  13. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    I'm sorry Donna. Another of those multi-letter acronyms. I hate them too. @Heavymetal took care of it for me.
     
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  14. romismatist

    romismatist Well-Known Member

    "Over thirty years ago a collector-dealer started a shop which he called Calgary Coin Gallery. Unlike most of the dealers he actively went to shows both in the UK as well as the US and bought coins back to Calgary. Thus I remember taking many trips down there to see what he had brought back. At this time there were many hoards available at these shows and so I could go and buy huge numbers of these coins at relatively modest prices. He is still active however he is close to retirement and I am not sure of the future of his franchise. Still it was always a pleasure to go there and see what coins he had."

    Yes, I remember Calgary Coin Gallery as well and bought quite a few coins from them decades ago. They exhibited at the annual Torex show in Toronto and always had a wide selection of ancients. They also had some informative web pages on ancients although I think that hasn't been updated in some time.

    When I was living in Calgary a few years ago I visited their store several times... they had stopped selling antiquities after the flood and had focused on coins. Robert has always been very knowledgeable and very conversational.
     
  15. scarborough

    scarborough Well-Known Member

  16. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    A brick and mortar shop got me started in the hobby. I used to frequent coin shops when I was a kid, but became interested in philately as a teen and young adult. I sold my coin collection (mostly US coins in Whitman folders with a few nicer coins) and delved deeply into stamps.

    I used to frequent a good general coin and stamp store with coins and stamps from all nations of the world. They had a glass case of ancients as well as some antiquities.

    I got into a situation in grad school where every stamp I needed was out of my budget. I was looking through the cases for something different one day and was struck by how inexpensive many of the ancient coins were. That started me thinking about taking up the hobby.

    One day, this coin showed up in inventory and I bought it. Cheesy, I know, but I bought it because it was a tribute penny.

    Tiberius Denarius.jpg
    In retrospect, I overpaid, but I have no regrets -- it introduced me to a hobby I love.

    Every month or so, I added more coins, such as these three ...

    Gallienus RESTITVT ORIENTIS Antoninianus.jpg
    Nero and Poppeae.jpg
    Claudius and Messalina Alexandria.jpg
    I bought coins at shows from such firms as Jonathan Kern, Bill Rosenblum, and Pegasi, and got on mailing lists of various auction houses and fixed price dealers.

    It was a fun time. The brick and mortar store is long gone, as are many of the dealers I met at shows back then.
     
  17. mark943

    mark943 Member

    I remember back in the 70s my father would take me to a local coin store in the Washington, D.C. area (we lived in Springfield, Va. at the time so it may have been in northern VA). I remember the guy behind the counter was an older gentleman named Goldy. He advised me to avoid ancients and I ended up buying a beautiful 1911 lincoln cent instead. I've been hooked ever since. Here's to you Goldy!
     
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  18. kirispupis

    kirispupis Well-Known Member

    I grew up near Rochester NY, and I recall seeing your ads - though I don't believe I ever visited your store. I only moved to collecting ancients recently, and back then as a kid I was a passionate stamp collector. As you recall, those days it was safe to go into downtown Rochester, and every year my mother gave me a budget of $25 for my birthday, and I would spend three months budgeting it for a visit to a stamp store that was in one of the department stores at Midtown Mall. I favored the small countries, because my family was of Luxembourgish heritage (I now have citizenship) so I felt obliged to "stick with the fellow little guys."

    Several months after buying my stamps, I would show them off to my grandfather, then marvel over his Luxembourg stamp collection. He also owned two gold double eagles he collected as a kid, though back then I didn't find them as interesting.

    Still, I wonder had I visited your store back then and realized that my $25 could have purchased an ancient denarius, would I have switched to coins?

    Probably not, but in a bit of luck the Transformers and Star Wars toys I played with back then recently financed my first ancient coins.
     
  19. J.T. Parker

    J.T. Parker Well-Known Member

    Reminds me of spending 3.50 of my $5.00 allowance on an uncirculated blast white 1887 seated liberty dime when I was 14. Dealer had a complete roll and let you pick the one you liked.
    J.T
     
  20. Egry

    Egry Well-Known Member

    So do I!

    I probably buy 90% of my coins from a single shop. I have a good relationship with them and they treat me right. I always seem to get a higher grade coin for lower price than I would pay for it at an auction.

    Unfortunately with Covid they are unable to travel to Europe where they get most of their stock, so their only option is to buy from online auctions like the rest of us. Probably another reason why recent auction prices are climbing as I'm sure they aren't the only dealer doing the same.
     
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  21. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    My earliest "brick & mortar" recollections were walk-ups in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, run by really nice old (then!) men in the early 1960's. They answered my questions and sold me coins from their junk boxes (denarii $2, AE 50 cents). I never spent big money (like $10) on their identified coins back then. That came later.

    My most recent "brick & mortar" experiences were two shops I will never see again since we stopped driving to Indiana when my mother-in-law passed away (at 104). One in Ohio was run by a really friendly and talkative fellow who knew nothing about the few ancients he had but seemed to appreciate having someone to talk about them with. The other was run by a guy who bragged about buying coins cheap from a widow who was bringing in her late husband's collection a few at a time. The "brick & mortar" experience sure has changed. Today, I judge a "brick & mortar" store by how large a sign they have saying that they buy gold and silver. The bigger the sign, the less likely I will be to find anything worth seeing. I have not seen a LCS for over a year now and plan no trips until the coin shows restart (next year?) so I suspect that is the end of my "brick & mortar" experience. I know another collector who lives within about ten miles of me but it is easier today to chat with someone in Europe or Asia than it is in my own county.
     
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