Q. David Bowers
"How did you start?" is a question asked of every successful professional numismatist.
"I started dealing in coins in September 1929, not realizing that I was launched on a career that was to be my life's work," Abe Kosoff wrote years later in one of his Coin World columns. "My previous exposures to coins had been very limited. When I was 13 years of age, one of my bar mitzvah gifts was a $2.50 gold piece. I don't remember what happened to it. In those days you simply went to a bank and asked for a gold coin in exchange for paper or silver ...
"Of course, I was always familiar with the penny. We always spoke of a cent as a penny. 'Cents' was reserved for the plural. This cherished coin, occasionally an Indian head, brings back warm recollections of Saturday afternoons when we would go to the movies." Abe Kosoff further recalled that a penny could also buy some chewing gum which could be affixed to a stick to retrieve valuable items that were spied but were out of reach through metal gratings in the sidewalk. However, it was the nickel that captured most of his childhood memories, for his father gave him one every evening, enough to buy some candy at a local store and have a few cents left over.
The famous rare coin dealer noted that over the years many people claimed to have given him his start in the profession, but the actual honors went to Joe Axler, a fellow student in Public School 171 on 103rd Street and Fifth Avenue, New York City. They were friends from the first grade onward, finally graduating from elementary school together, then going to DeWitt Clinton High School, where they both graduated with the January 1929 class.
"Joe's father had a successful business dealing in second-hand watches, and when Joe articulated at the New York University, he spent afternoons learning his father's trade," Abe Kosoff recalled. "He must have had a good teacher, for eventually Joe bought the famous Waltham Watch Company, reorganized it, and then sold it at a handsome profit!
"Then our paths separated, for Ienrolled in the College of the City of New York. The downtown building at 23rd and Lexington Avenue was being built, and temporary classes were set up in the Grand Central Palace building. The limited facilities made it impossible to register for required classes, and I considered transferring to New York University. I had a job paying $15 per week, room and board was free at home, and I discussed the matter with Joe.
"The problem was that I didn't particularly like the work I was doing. I had been looking for a job in the financial district, when I was asked by a woman in an employment agency if I would like a 'stock job.' I jumped at it, thinking it was just what I wanted-only to find out that it meant being a clerk in the stockroom of a firm manufacturing smoking jackets and robes!
"Joe thought he knew of an elderly gentleman who needed a boy to help him with his antique business. It turned out he was right, and in September 1929 I went to work for A. Celender in the Reliable Jewelry Exchange in the Bowery, near Canal Street, New York City. As a sideline to the antique jewelry business, Celender also bought and sold old coins."
Abraham Kosoff, always known as "Abe" to his friends, was born in New York City on December 31, 1912, New Year's Eve, the son of Harry and Sarah Kosoff. His father was a butcher by trade. His brothers Arthur and Sam and sisters Sadie, Sophie, and Gertrude were all older than Abe.
In September 1929, the American economy seemed to be energetic, those who had money were freely spending it on luxuries, and the coin, antique, and jewelry trades were doing well. The American citizenry was divided into the "haves" and "have nots." While wealthy investors, businessmen, and others were building palatial homes, bidding stock up to new highs, and ordering fancy automobiles, 71% of American families had incomes below $2,500, a figure considered to be the minimum necessary for a comfortable life. In fact, the average weekly wage was just $28, which computed to slightly over $1,000 per year. Still, prices were low enough that millions of citizens could afford to buy Chevrolet, Dodge, and other low-priced automobiles, which cost upwards of several hundred dollars each, including Henry Ford's new Model A. The welfare of the ordinary citizen was apt to take a distant second place to corporate profits. When the president of General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan, received a suggestion that the best-selling Chevrolet automobile be equipped with safety glass in order to reduce accidents, he resisted the move because of its expense, noting, "Accidents or no accidents, my concern in this problem is a matter of profit and loss."
Most travel between distant cities was accomplished by trains, which offered comfortable service and frequent schedules. Commercial air service was catching on, and during the year 1929 180,000 passengers were carried on United States routes. Few people dreamed that 50 years later rail travel would be all but obsolete, and airlines would make possible coast-to-coast travel in a matter of hours.
America's favorite entertainment was the radio, where the Amos 'n' Andy show or Rudy Vallee could be heard, or where one could tune in to such popular songs as Tiptoe Through the Tulips, Stardust, and Singin' in the Rain. Movie shows, which typically charged from a dime to a quarter admission, were likewise popular. The first musical Mickey Mouse film appeared in 1929, and "talkies" were sounding the death knell to standard silent film fare.
In 1929 the stock market, which had risen in a dizzying spiral throughout the late 1920s, began its crash on Tuesday, October 24th, following an announcement that steel and iron production had dropped in the United States and that interest rates in Britain had fallen sharply. On that day a record 16.4 million shares changed hands, and the Dow-Jones Industrial Average dropped 30.57 points, forcing numerous investors into liquidation or bankruptcy as they were forced to sell stock purchased on margin. Ensuing events in the securities market saw over $30 billion worth of capital and paper profits disappear-a sum which one historian noted was greater than the entire monetary cost of World War 1. Business fell off in many sectors, gloom pervaded the economy, and the long slide into the Depression began. President Hoover assured American citizens that all was going well, and that prosperity was just around the corner, but history would show that many long years of deprivation were ahead.
A more unfavorable time to begin a professional numismatic career could not be imagined. Later, Abe Kosoff was to comment that he had "six good weeks" before the stock market crash! However, this was to prove to be a trial by fire for the young dealer, and by dint of much hard work he slowly gained a foothold in the trade.
In 1929 there were few dealers in New York City. The leader among a small group of professionals was Wayte Raymond, who a few years earlier had paid $100,000 for the Col. James Ellsworth Collection, setting a record in the process. The purchase was accomplished jointly with John Work Garrett, the Baltimore numismatist and ambassador who later willed his holdings to The Johns Hopkins University. Raymond had been a leading figure in the coin field for about two decades. In his offices at 489 Park Avenue many deals were made.