Q. David Bowers
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.
The old Perera firm engaged in foreign exchange down near the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan, Abe Kosoff later recalled. Also in the financial district was the firm of Rees, Scully & Forshay, for whom Bill Holtzman was a specialist in scarce coins, later forming William Holtzman & Co.
In addition to Raymond, another large coin operation was that of the Guttag brothers, who were all set to construct an impressive building in the Wall Street district. In the same area was a small operation by I. Klein, whose son Ben later continued the business. On Fulton Street, Hans Sergl claimed a nice following of serious collectors and, unlike many of his fellow dealers, specialized only in coins-no antiques, no jewelry, no other items to help pay the rent.
Asher Kleiman ran a curio shop on 23rd Street, not far from Thomas L. Elder, who was the only dealer conducting coin auctions on a regular basis in New York City at the time. The Scott Stamp & Coin Company had coin as part of its title, but in 1929 it was primarily concerned with the stamp trade. A few years later its Numismatic Department gained prominence when Wayte Raymond became associated with it.
On 59th Street, Max Berenstein, a jeweler, ran Bern's Antiques and traded extensively in gold coins. J. Mayfield, another New York City dealer, advertised in a modest way.
Abe's own coin business could hardly be called an operation, he wrote years later. "A. Celender's trade was primarily in antique jewelry. Gold coins brought very little premium." However, when gold coins did come in, it was Abe Kosoff who evaluated them.
In 1929 Moritz Wormser was still a collector, a well-liked individual who had served more terms as president of the American Numismatic Association than anyone else before or since. It was not until several years later that he established the New Netherlands Coin Company, a firm which was to reach high levels of prestige. "In 1929 it was still three years before Stack's opened an old gold shop on 22nd Street near the elevated railroad at Sixth Avenue," Abe Kosoff wrote. "Several years were also to elapse before I. Snyderman started his business on Madison Avenue."
In the early years, David M. Bullowa, on vacation from the University of Wisconsin, would come to New York City and browse among the coin, curio, and antique shops in the metropolis. In doing so he became one of Abe Kosoff's first customers. Abe later recalled: "We had a private little joke which carried through the years, and I often used it in later times. 'CAF' one would remark when the other quoted a price on a coin. 'Cost A Fortune.' It was just one of those things I remember with a warm feeling. David Bullowa joined the ANA in 1929."
Later, David Bullowa took over the business of Ira F. Reed, the famous Philadelphia numismatist, who conducted trade in the same environment that saw the Chapman brothers, James G. Macallister, and Bill Rabin cater to collectors far and wide. In his Abe Kosoff Remembers book, the dealer noted that in 1929 Philadelphia was probably the leading coin center in America, as it had been for many years. New York City was gaining momentum. In Boston, William Hesslein prepared auction sales and price lists, a dealership that was to later end in scandal when he disappeared owing a lot of people money. In Providence, Rhode Island, Horace Grant was a leading dealer, while other New England personalities included Ambrose J. Brown, Romano's, and Howard MacIntosh. Sam Kabealo was busy in Ohio, and M.H. Bolender did business in Orangeville, illinois, both gentlemen later moving to Southern California. Norman Shultz was a regular advertiser from his Salt Lake City office.
"Old John Zug was down in Bowie, Maryland, and John sure did have a lot of gold coins at his old farmhouse. Anyone who ever met John would remember that whistle through his teeth as he talked coins," Abe Kosoff wrote.
In St. Louis, Burdette G. Johnson operated the St. Louis Stamp & Coin Company, with which he had been affiliated for many years. Soon, he was to play an important part in the dispersal of the Virgil Brand estate. Brand, who had been styled as "the greatest coin collector who ever lived," died in 1926 leaving a vast holding estimated to contain over 350,000 coins, tokens, and medals including duplicates of famous rarities. His two heirs, Armin and Horace Brand, were still pondering what to do with their inheritance in 1929. Many items, particularly gold coins and currency pieces, had simply been cashed in for face value. It was hoped that a philanthropist would buy the main part of the collection intact and donate it to the Smithsonian Institution, but this never happened.
Down in Fort Worth, Texas, B. Max Mehl, whom Abe Kosoff later designated as "the P.T. Barnum of numismatics," was by all accounts the grand personality on the professional coin scene. For years, Max's charm and wit had enlivened annual conventions of the American Numismatic Association and other gatherings. His auction catalogues, which were really mail bid sales (for no in-person attendance took place), were flourishing in an era in which Samuel Hudson Chapman had recently died and Henry Chapman was in his twilight years. If one were to nominate the most prominent professional numismatist of the first half of the 20th century, by all odds the laurels would go to Mehl.
Hugo Landecker's coin dealership in San Francisco, Ed Lee's office in Glendale, California and L.W. Hoffecker's operation in El Paso, Texas, were also remembered by Abe Kosoff during his beginning years.
The leading publication on the coin collecting scene was The Numismatist, the monthly journal of the American Numismatic Association. The American Journal of Numismatics, published by the American Numismatic Society in New York City, had suspended its regular schedule and was issued in the form of occasional monographs.
The September 1929 issue of The Numismatist featured an article concerning the private gold coinage of the Bechtler family in Rutherfordton, North Carolina. Reprinted from the Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, the article was said to be "the first complete sketch ever offered for publication on the Bechtlers. They have been frequently mentioned in newspaper and historical sketches, but nothing approaching a complete story of their life and work has ever been published. A number of individuals have been interviewed and all existing printed references on the subject have been examined. The paper may be regarded as of real historical importance."