If you could pick one person in Numismatics, past or present, alive or dead, that you would like to meet or would have liked to have met while they were living, who would it be and why. It could be an author, well known coin dealer, auctioneer...whatever the profession. Myself, I would like to meet Mr. Q. David Bowers from Bowers and Merena. He's a very knowledgable man so I know I'd have a ton of questions. Feel free to list more than one person if you like.
ditto here is a pic of him: http://www.accla.org/images/davidsear.jpg and and interview with a very interesting statement: http://www.ancient-times.com/newsletters/n14/n14.html On a personal note, do you have a favorite area of collecting? Or a better question may be, what do you collect for enjoyment? I have never seriously collected coins at any time in my life. My pleasure has come from researching and writing on the subject without ever having felt the need to personally possess the coins. My real weakness is for books and I have spent a lifetime gradually building up a library which has proved invaluable in facilitating my study of ancient history and numismatics. the man had dedicated his life to the study of ancient coins and history and he is hands down the most important person in the field.
No question - Dr. Cornelius C. Vermeule, author of A monetary History of Japan, which is Part One of Japanese Coinage, 2d Ed. 1972. :thumb: (I wouldn't object to his co-author, Dr. Norman Jacobs, joining us. )
I have a few, but I'd love to have met Harry W. Bass Jr. Love to have seen his gold collection to. Would have been an interesting meet. Phoenix
King Farouk of Egypt. I would love to stroll through his collection of world coins. When you are King, you get to collect the best stuff.
There are a few guys that I would like to meet-----Catman....GDJMSP.....Zane..and alot of the other guys I've met on this forum. With friends like that who needs Bowers On a side note---I wouldn't mind meeting some of the well known coin collectors/dealers, but I don't know of "one" out of all of them that I would like most of all. One person that comes to mind is James Wiles....he would be a fun guy to meet IMHO. Speedy
That's easy for me - Benjamin Franklin. Now there was a brilliant man. I would love to sit down with a man like that and see what makes him tick, what drives him to do all of the things he was involved in, what inspires him, where does his creative ideas come from, etc, etc. Wow, the conversation I would like to have with him.
Wow, you guys are coming up with some good ones. I wouldnt mind meeting some of you guys here in the forum as well.
I would choose George and Melvin Fuld, who at one time owned about half of the known population of Civil War tokens (about 1/2 million tokens, and still did not have an example from each of the 400 issueing cities), and did a tremendous amount of research in this area.
