Q. David Bowers
How it would please Abe Kosoff, this book by Q. David Bowers, the 20th-century Boswell-of numismatics. I can see Abe's smile now.
They are alike in many ways, these two gentlemen scholars and professional colleagues. Their activities and writings, chronicled and carried for a quarter of a century in Coin World, point to their hobby dedication and influence. As editor of the first weekly newspaper for coin collectors and as an intense, entranced observer for 25 years, I testify to this from firsthand experience.
How fortunate for all of us Abe Kosoff chose to devote his professional life to numismatics.
How fitting for Dave Bowers to become his biographer. This book will inspire others and preserve on the record for all time the Abe Kosoff story.
Abe, always the visionary, writing about the famous Russian Mikhailovitch Collection, referred to the recapture of "a little bit of time." Dave Bowers and the luminaries he selected with the help of Abe's wife, Molly, to participate in this biography and chronology, capture far more than a little of the essence of Kosoff and his devotion for 54 years of his life to numismatics.
My first opportunity to meet Abe came about in the early 1960s. The meeting was engineered deliberately by Abe and Sol Kaplan, his friend and colleague, a Cincinnati professional numismatist. They separated me at a lively party (collectors are known for their uninhibited conversation which moves rapidly from zero to ever-higher units on the decibel scale). There was no doubt in my mind that our quiet corridor talk was to be a cat-and-mouse, perhaps even sparring affair.
As hobby protectors they were intent upon learning what Coin World, this upstart newspaper, was all about, what it would mean to the collecting community. They wanted to know the ilk of the founder-publisher, J.O. Amos, his intentions, his ethics, and since he had sent me out to represent the newspaper, whether I was intelligent enough to grasp the full import of the hobby and my job.
Their preliminary investigation seemed to satisfy them enough to give a provisionary nod of approval. Coin World's first story about Abe Kosoff and the fabled 1913 Liberty Head nickel appeared January 12, 1961.
This was the beginning of a warm relationship with Coin World that ended only with Abe's death in 1983. The index entries devoted to him from 1961 fill pages and pages. He chose Coin World as the vehicle to record his colorful numismatic recollections in a column, "Kosoff Commentary." It ran for years, one of the newspaper's best-read features. With typical foresight he retained camera-ready reproductions of his columns. These later were collected into the book, Abe Kosoff Remembers. As I write these words I am looking at a handsome, inscribed leather-bound presentation copy, a gift from Abe to his editor, typical of his thoughtfulness to his friends.
Sol Kaplan became a good Coin World friend, too, a knowledgeable, cooperative contact for a numismatic journalist, but he would never advertise in Coin World. We had a policy, no freebie subscriptions for advertisers, and this rankled Sol. We didn't give in, thus the advertising impasse.
It was theater to watch Abe, distinguished, debonair, to report upon his life roles. There was Abe, the husband. How he loved his Molly. They were inseparable, devoted, beautiful people. The two of them on the dance floor put Fred and Ginger to shame.
There was Abe, the father, so proud of his son, Steve, and his daughter, Sonnie, numismatic mentor to both of them. His grief, his hurt were deep at the untimely death of Steve. For whatever reason, by Divine Decree, there was a shattering of promises that were not to be kept. The last time I saw them together was in Florida, arms around each other, laughingly displaying their lengthy American Numismatic Association convention badge string. The Kosoffs took their children and later, grandchildren, to numismatic affairs all over the world. Our young daughter and their granddaughter played together at a Canadian Numismatic Association convention. Molly was first outside our family with a gift when our first grandchild arrived.
Abe bought coins for a king. He sold coins for millionaires, yet the most modest collector was just as important to him. He always had time to talk, to counsel. He played golf with movie stars. Time and again with his polish he enhanced the image of numismatics as he testified in Congress on behalf of measures important to the hobby and described in detail in this book.
As a leader and in later years, a revered elder statesman, he quieted troubled hobby waters, settled acrimonious arguments. He could be soft, sophisticated, stern, wry, but always cool. He was a role model for young lions coming along in professional numismatics. He had the total respect of his contemporaries.
As an example of his diplomacy, when he set out to help establish the American Numismatic Association's Certification Service, he gathered together several sharp young dealers at a California convention and enlisted their support.
In his quiet, lucid way he explained what he hoped would be achieved by such a program which was then confined to authentication. Without a trace of condescension he invited them to give their views. He received good ideas and constructive criticism-just what he was seeking. But every man in the room felt important.
With great respect and affection we have written thousands of words about Abe Kosoff in Coin World, some of which Dave Bowers has included in this volume. It was sheer pleasure to put together a Coin World tribute booklet, The Abe Kosoff Collection of Memories, distributed during the Numismatic Association of Southern California 1979 convention when Abe celebrated his 50th anniversary as a professional numismatist.
The American Numismatic Society, the American Numismatic Association, the Professional Numismatists Guild, Inc., and the International Association of Professional Numismatists, among others, heaped honors upon Abe Kosoff for his contributions to numismatics. No one deserved them more.
After Abe's death March 19, 1983, oh, far too soon, at the age of 70, in our editorial-eulogy, we wrote about Abe and books as minds alive on the shelves. Abe was an advocate and practitioner of recording numismatic history. We are indebted to him for this and to Dave Bowers, who subscribes substantively to such documentation as he adds this volume to a long list of classic books he has written.
Both men have lived during some of the most dramatic and explosive years in American numismatics. Now we can reach on the shelf for another volume of two fine minds alive.
How this book would please Abe Kosoff ...
- Margo Russell
-Coin World, 1960-1985