Q. David Bowers
"When I attended his funeral, I was asked to stay over a few days and to liquidate the company. It was then that I learned a lot about this little giant. I sold the company, realizing a substantial sum for the name, one of very few in numismatics which could command a five figure premium."
The reference here is to the name, "The B. Max Mehl Company," which was sold to Max and George Justus, of Beverly Hills, for a reported $25,000.
"Among the things given to me which I prize is Max's personal chain of American Numismatic Association convention bars. The first of 41 bars was dated 1910, the last 1956. I think an appropriate place for this chain is in the Museum of he American Numismatic Association, and I donated it for that purpose at the Houston ANA convention in the summer of 1978.
"It has been a rare privilege which my wife Molly and I appreciated, to have been close friends of Ethel and Max Mehl. Max was a most dynamic force, responsible, more than anyone man I know, for today's popularity of numismatics."
On many occasions, Abe Kosoff referred to Mehl as "the P. T. Barnum of numismatics," a tile which perhaps Mehl shared with Farran Zerbe, mother early-day promoter, perhaps the antecedent to Mehl, for Zerbe flourished during the first decade or two of the 20th century, before Mehl came up to full speed.
"B. Max Mehl was just over five feet tall, but hat was the only thing that was small about him," Abe Kosoff wrote. "In my book, he was the number one professional numismatic giant of all times. I know that many did not like him, many disagreed with his advertising policies. I agree that today he might have himself a peck of trouble. But we are talking about the days of P. T. Barnum, of he huckster, of the patent medicine man.
"Now don't get me wrong. I don't say it was all okay. I will say that he did more to popularize coin collecting than any other man who ever lived. On occasion, Max and I would discuss the reason or numismatics having grown so fantastically in popularity. Several points of agreement were reached. First, Whitman's coin folders, which were old for 25c, a price low enough to encourage youngsters to collect, helped. Second, the proven investment value of coins, which over the years return profits higher than was true for most other capital investments, attracted many. Third, B. Max Mehl's advertising and publicity campaigns helped the hobby.
"Mehl was the P.T. Barnum of the numismatic field. He pronounced himself an authority in all phases of numismatics which, in my opinion, he was not. I daresay he would agree with me in private. He had the guts to spend as much as $17,500 for an advertisement on the back page of the American Weekly, the main section of the Hearst chain of Sunday newspapers. Can you guess what Mehl was trying to get his readers to do? He was asking them to send 4c, for which he would send them his 'large illustrated coin and stamp folder.' For this he spent $17,500-not only once, but several times!
"When he received the folder, the reader would be informed of the value of certain coins. Before putting the folder away, the reader was convinced that if he or she sent 10c a more elaborate folder would be forthcoming. Eventually, the correspondence resulted in the sale of the famous Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia for $1.
"You wouldn't believe how many dollars rolled in for this book. Hardly a bank in the country was without one. I remember traveling from town to town, stopping at banks, pawn shops and jewelers. Everyone had the Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia. Once Max took a one-column ad in the Saturday Evening Post. In those days it cost $2,000. He got 9,800 orders for the coin book at $1 per copy this all in the very first week. Orders came in for months afterwards.
"If you wanted to do business with Mehl you did it by mail, or by telephone. Once in a while, an appointment could be arranged. If you came to Fort Worth without an appointment, there was no way. Dr. J. Hewitt Judd told me that he visited the Mehl establishment without an appointment. Mehl and Judd knew each other very well, but the front office was trained, and Judd never did get to see Mehl. When the late Louis Eliasberg visited Mehl, by appointment, Mehl treated him royally-lunch at the Exchange Club, dinner at the Colonial Country Club, a motor tour of the area. They talked numismatics for hours, until Eliasberg mentioned that he wanted to buy the Dunham specimen of the 1804 silver dollar, which Mehl possessed. Mehl told him, Wait until you get home.' That's what Eliasberg had to do to buy the coin, and he did.
"I was personally very friendly with Max and did visit with him at his office a few times, always by appointment. It was not until after his death, however, when I handled his coins, that I learned that behind that quiet, luxurious office there was a back room in which 125 women were busy taking care of mail! There was a back door through which they entered and exited, but no one would ever know it if they came in the front way and saw B. Max Mehl sitting there in a big comfortable leather chair. One would only see B. Max Mehl and his long time secretary, Mary Ferguson.
"From Mehl's records I later learned that at one time Mehl spent more on postage than did all the rest of the population of Fort Worth! His records indicate that the highest number of pieces of mail received in one day at his office was 52,000 and the outgoing day's mail record was 70,000 pieces!
"Mehl often asserted that he spent $1 million advertising for the 1913 Liberty head nickel. He never bought one in this manner, but he did buy a fantastic amount of coins, and he sold many, many copies of the $1 Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia. As said before, Mehl was the P.T. Barnum of numismatics. He certainly was not bashful. Whatever he did, he did with a flair and a touch of class. It was always the biggest and the best or some other superlative.
"When he advertised the sale of the William C. Atwater Collection he stated that the catalogue was 'the most beautiful specimen of numismatic literature ever published.' Almost every advertisement proclaimed his place to be the 'oldest and largest rare coin establishment in the country.'
"In 1929, when Mehlbought the famous Dr. George P. French Collection, the Rochester (New York) Journal and Post Express of March 22nd, had a picture showing Mehl handing a check for $50,000 to Dr. French. After all, why pay for all the advertising when a lot of it was available for free publicity? Mehl got his share of both. His hey-day was in the 1925-1935 period. Even though that era covered the stock market crash, the great Depression and the Bank Holiday, Mehl spent an average of $100,000 per year for advertising. That adds up to a million dollars for the decade-and those were real dollars. And, he got results."
Mehl told Abe Kosoff of his relationship with Col. Green, and this was later related in one of Kosoff's Coin World columns:
"In 1915, Mehl was visiting his mother when her physician asked why he didn't sell any of his coins to Col. Green. Mehl obtained Green's addresses in Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Florida. To each address, Max began sending mail. He did that for six years and never heard a word in reply.