Featured The End of the Local Coin Shop?

Sounds like collector heaven!

 

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The coin shop, like so many other retailers (JC Penny bankruptcy, Macy's on the brink, Sears gone) has been the victim of rapidly advancing technology.

There also is a generational factor, as has been stated. The fact is younger people are far too busy raising families, paying for the house, apartment, food, transportation, clothing, etc. to have the time and the funds to indulge in collecting coins, or any other pastime that requires a commitment of hours and dollars.

There is also a generational difference in education. When I was in elementary school US and world history, including ancient history, was a requirement. I remember reading, in the fourth grade, with great fascination, the Athenian victory over the Persian Empire at Marathon. That lit a spark that lead to my interest in ancient and modern history. These days I don't know if history is such an important subject in public education. Also, the liberal arts degree, so prevalent when I graduated in 1974, seems to have gone the way of the dodo, and with it, a well rounded appreciation of the arts, sciences, philosophy and critical thinking.

But, such is the tide of history. Change is inevitable, and indeed it is the permanent driver in the world we live in.

 

Don't worry, there are still plenty of humanities and social sciences majors; history can be classified as one or the other depending on the university. ("Liberal Arts" is broader than both, and includes mathematics.)

My interest in Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as Ancient Egypt and the Near East, grew from very frequent trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a child back in the 1960s, usually with my grandmother, who lived a few blocks from there. (When I go there now, I still see lots of children showing great interest.) And, as I recall, a significant portion of "social sciences" in 6th grade consisted of learning about Ancient Egypt. Outside of school, a picture book from the 1920s called "A Child's Book of Myths" was one of my favorite books as a small child, and in about 3rd or 4th grade, I read the Modern Library edition of Bulfinch's Mythology in its entirety. (I turned up my nose at classmates reading Edith Hamilton's compilation, because I considered it a mere children's book!)

 

We keep talking about a dying hobby and a future with fewer collectors. I have always agreed with this analysis.
Yet, ancient coins catch higher pricer than ever. (Perhaps not if adjusted for inflation, though).
I think my generation, and my daughters generation are full of history lovers. Look at all the tv-series with historic content.
I think we’re pessimistic, but so far the market is telling us that’s wrong.

 

You're probably right that a liberal arts degree doesn't hold as much weight as it did before. Though STEM seems to be the path for many millennials, there still seems to be significant interest in humanities. As a classics and history major in my early twenties, I can attest to this. I'm hopeful that my generation's interest in ancient/modern history will endure.

My interest in ancient history also also started in elementary school. Where I went to school, history was mandatory; we learned about the ancient Greeks in grade 5 and the Romans in grade 6. As I attended a private school, I'm not quite sure if ancient history is still taught in the public school system. I would assume there is at least some introductory information in a world history class.

 

Having read Bullfinch's Mythology is an admirable accomplishment! Having lived in New York and having access to the Metropolitan Museum of Art put you in the center of history in all of its manifestations.

I grew up in Detroit, during period, and while the Detroit Museum of the Arts was an interesting place to visit, it couldn't hold a candle to the New York's museum.

I guess the closest to reading an entire series on history is the series written by Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, many years ago.

 

I read books about Egypt and the Near East in third grade and got a great book on Greek mythology from Scholastic that I read many times over. The three graeae, Procustes the stretcher, Theseus and the minotaur, Medusa, and all of the other characters filled my dreams, as well as the gods themselves on Olympus.

Then I started studying Roman history. In college I majored in Ancient Egyptian and Classics (a double major). I decided to work in the finance world for a couple of years and then got an MBA. At various times, people tried to talk me out of studying the classics because of the supposedly shrinking job market and no demand for liberal arts majors. I found this to be true to an extent but not nearly as dire as most of the warnings. So my advice to kids going into college is to study their true interests and not just something that will ensure a regular paycheck but with no imagination.

Having a broad perspective and many interests results in a much happier work life anyway, and when you become a corporate officer or CEO of a start-up nobody cares what you studied anyway, just how you perform.

 

I remember the coin shops in London with great fondness from my trips there in 1986 and 2002, especially because I primarily collected British coins and historical medals back then. I'm glad to hear that some still exist. In 1986, I spent most of one afternoon parked on a chair at Seaby's, looking at tray after tray of British gold cons and silver crowns, and went to at least half a dozen other places. In 2002, I was with my then 12-year-old son, who was somewhat less tolerant of my spending time looking at coins than the person I traveled with in 1986, before I was married. However, my son did love museums and ancient art (as he does still); I believe we spent two entire days and part of a third at the British Museum, out of our eight days in London, and I deliberately chose a hotel a few blocks from the Museum so we could walk there in a few minutes. There was a large coins and antiquities store called Coincraft that we did visit that was directly across from the museum. It catered to the tourist trade but still had some very interesting stock. I don't remember if I bought any coins, but I did buy this Roman oil lamp:



In New York City, at least in Manhattan, I don't think there are many old-fashioned small coin stores left. What you'll find a lot of instead are the diamond and jewelry and watch stores that have the "We Buy Gold" signs, and have a few trays of old coins as well. Then there are the old coin stores, some of which have been around forever, that now devote a substantial part of their space to other "hobby" items -- baseball cards, autographs, etc. -- but still also have coins. An example is this place, which I remember going to as long ago as the early 1980s:
https://www.brigandicoin.com/. Note that coins are not among their most prominently featured items. And if you go to the menu and click on Ancient Coins, you'll see this message: "Sorry, there are no products in this collection." Although when I was last in their neighborhood and stopped by, they still had some trays of ancient coins out. All slabbed.

This place is still around, too, and is the closest thing I know of in NYC to an old-fashioned coin shop; I spent many hours there years ago: http://www.pauljbosco.com/. Note that the proprietor doesn't always keep things exactly current on his website, and that you can't actually buy anything directly from the website. I talked to him a bit in January at the NYINC, where he had a table.

And then you have the high-end places like Stack's Bowers, which still has a street-level storefront where you can go in and look at what they have in their display cases. Including one case with unslabbed ancients!

 

Do you still have the Saturday Charing Cross coin market? I was there in 2017, but it took quite a search to find it, located in an empty floor of a car park. It was fun to visit, and I hope to go back one of these years.

 

I wish I had the wherewithal and time to visit the coin shops in London. My sister lives there, but during my visits to her in the 1980's and early 90's I limited my visits to the coin shops near the British Museum, and their goods, as would be expected, were very pricey.

 

I spent 35 years in the Navy and travelled all around the US and the world. I never found a US coin shop where ancients were available or discussed - except for one high end shop in New York. I couldn't afford anything they had and when asked how much money I was looking to spend, I all but got ignored. Eastern Europe on the other hand had numerous venues to buy, sell, and talk ancient coins, which makes perfect sense, and I bought several coins there. Ireland and England also had some decent Ancient dealers. As far as here in the US, I haven't found much of anything and am relegated to shows and eBay. Shame.

 

Your response is right on target. The problem today is that as you say, most are in business to buy not to sell. I had heard of a store in Springfield, MO that is notorious for "being less than honest" with customers so I sent a friend into the store with a 1909 S VDB graded by NGC at AU48 and after the owner and his partner(?) had a brief discussion they offered my friend $100.00. I can only hope these type of stores go under FAST.

 

Very similar to the coin shops here in Sacramento! It's certainly a sign of the times, oh and don't forget the owner's 9mm on the desk for all to see easily!

 

I still own a Charles I Shilling I bought in Dublin in the early 1980's where I walked into a small smoke filled shop with mahogany cabinets, and had a comfortable chat with an old guy smoking a pipe who sold me the shilling.

 

Nice to see some young ladies in attendance. The only LCS in my area
is 45 minute drive. Well worth the visit, Dwayne and Robert are friendly
and knowledgeable.

 

My LCS is basically a bullion buyer/seller with a few graded moderns under glass. I've taken FFIVN there a few times and the owners are always rude when they see the kid come in and what he wants to do is look at the (overpriced) world coin junk box. We've stopped going. It's a shame.

 

I still have dreams about visiting coin shops in London, but of course dreams being what they are, things are wacky and out of place, and it always seems the I forget my passport!

 

I've had more than one dream in which I'm in a plane halfway across the Atlantic before I realize that I forgot my passport. Of course it couldn't happen, but that's dreams for you.

 

When I moved to southern Nevada (below Vegas) 12 years ago, there were several coins shops across the river in Arizona. No more. I've discovered, however, that pawn shops are a treasure trove of old coins, U.S. and world. By acquainting myself with several shop owners, and knowing full well that they pay pennies on the dollar for most everything that is pawned, I've been able to pick up quite a few nice coins, slabbed and raw, for quite a bit less than what the market is asking. By letting them know what i'm looking for, they know that they will get a quick sale and still make a nice profit while giving me a nice discount. Since we have 10 casinos on the Nevada side of the Colorado river and a problematic drug culture on the Arizona side, quite a few coins see their way to the pawn shops, whether cold or a little warm.

 

I enjoyed reading your post. I've never been to a coin shop and therefore was visualizing what it was like for you from your words.