Q.David Bowers
"Going down Broadway, one finds in a third floor front room the latest location of Mr.W. P. Brown, a rather taciturn and bearded philosopher who is most actively occupied in stamps and publications, but has a coin stock which has for years proved worth occasional visits from alert collectors.
"In the middle of downtown business life on John Street will be found the]. W. Scott Company. It occupies a spacious lower floor with two show windows on the street, and its manager, Mr. Scott, and a number of clerks are busy behind the counters and at desks over a large stamp trade. Coins, though subordinate, received considerable attention, and very choice pieces of all kinds are frequently to be found. Numismatic publications are also on hand.
"From this point it does not take long to reach a ferry and train and extend our tour to Philadelphia. Quaker city dealers are notable in giving no outward sign of their occupation, and for their domestic conduct of it. The small door plate HENRY CHAPMAN on a large single house of the quiet Philadelphia type in the best residential section of the city is the only evidence of a widely known firm of brothers of that name. Running the gauntlet of several Scotch terriers, the visitor ascends to a long second floor back room crowded with cabinets, bookcases and tables, pictures, curios, and antiquities. Everything indicates a pressure of business, but a genial reception and rich display of coins awaits the buyer. S. H. Chapman, who is approaching middle life, has very dark hair and beard, a rather pale studious face and large brow and in traveling through Greece in pursuit of numismatic treasures which are his special 'cult,' was always supposed a native. He is a skilled amateur photographer. Mr. H. Chapman is an attractive young gentleman with brown hair, cordial manner, and a fine fresh complexion, but there is nothing 'fresh' about him in business. Both brothers are bachelors and enjoy society, even beyond the Philadelphia brand. The sale catalogues of this firm are unequalled in their accuracy, style, and good taste.
"J. Colvin Randall, a veteran in numismatics, has an attractive residence in the fashionable part of the city. He is well off and keeps up his interest in coins merely as a pastime. His 'den' is a second story back room which is full of cabinets, loaded bookshelves, rare prints, and curios. He has a shrewd genial face fringed with short grey hair and beard, talks fluently in clear cut Saxon, enjoys story telling and with special gusto, when someone's blundering in coins is subject of merriment. From May to November, however, he annually sheds his numismatic shell on the Jersey shore and then collectors may bait their hooks for him in vain.
"Dr. E. [Edward] Maris, whose celebrity as a coin expert and classifier is known to all experienced collectors, is a physician of repute and a member of the Society of Friends. He is-now rather advanced in age and occupies a plain, commodious dwelling in the lower part of the city which bears simply his name on a doorplate. The genial doctor is one of the kindest and most conscientious of men. He is rather tall and spare, has a prominent nose and a face of generally strong character, clean shaven, except short side whiskers. The Friend's language is used with a winning voice and altogether one, in meeting him, reverses the moral strength which must have been exercised by such a man as a coin dealer. Of late years, however, he has largely relinquished his temptations, although having collections occasionally confided to him for sale by some intimate or correspondent who would not trust everybody.
"The American Stamp and Coin Company is a new Philadelphia claimant for numismatic business. It is notable from having a show window up Chestnut Street, though as yet the coin stock seems moderate and the stamp business is principal activity.
"Mr. Mason [E. B. Mason, Jr.], long prominent as a Boston coin dealer and editor, has a small shop in Philadelphia near City Hall where he sells coins, stamps, books, stationery, etc. Being thinner than of old and clean shaven, he would not at first be recognized by former patrons. A mention of this dealer leads us next to the city where he was once an authority.
"Mr. H. E. Morey was found by us when last in Boston in a narrow winding street of that city's busiest and most labyrinthine section, in an office on the second floor. A counter and showcase full of coins protected him from the class of people who want to know the premium on V nickels and ' 53 quarters with rays, and a big fireproof contained stock for a higher class of visitors. There was a little inner room also for retreat and possibly editorial labor, as Mr. Morey issues a little sheet called the Numismatic Quarterly and Catalogue. He is a middle-aged rather quiet man wearing spectacles and has the air of a schoolmaster.
"On a wide street in the same section of the city we found on a third floor front room of an office building the so-called 'Numismatic Bank' of W. Von Bergen. The room contained a long counter and showcase of assorted coins, a safe or two, a young lady clerk at a table, and the dealer who is a rather large man with a dark beard and the deliberate manner of his nationality. We drew a few satisfactory copper coins from the 'bank' and made a deposit of some greenbacks and silver to add to its capital.
"From Boston we take a flying leap to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There, in a prominent street, but beyond the business section, we find a low unpretentious but commodious three quarter dwelling where Charles Steigerwalt does quietly by correspondence more business than many merchants. A little ground floor room contains much of his stock which, however, is scattered in part through the house, as but few buyers make a personal visit. For the same reason, his coins are mostly in envelopes ready to mail. The well known dealer is a man of medium height and weight with brown hair and mustache, pleasant face, gentle manner and voice, rather quiet, and middle-aged. His frequent voluminous catalogues, extensive travel to visit large collectors and attend auctions, and his unremitting attention to business have made Lancaster a numismatic metropolis.
"Baltimore comes next in our tour. Dr. George Massamore is there to be sought in two or three places. As a coin dealer, he has a counter, showcase, and fireproof and show window in one side of the store on North Charles Street, the other side being given up to an optician's business. As a dentist he is found at times at his residence, and as a politician he has long held some office at this City Hall. There he is perhaps now less occupied, as the Republicans have been drawing so many teeth of late that his party has very little of even a jaw left. Dr. Massamore is of middle age, of mild pleasant manner, somewhat bald, and has been known many years as a coin dealer of experience and a cataloguer of many collections.
"From Baltimore we journeyed to Washington. There a Mr. B. H. Collins, who was many years in highly responsible positions under Republican administration, has been persuaded by President Cleveland to devote himself entirely to longstanding personal predilections for the purchase and sale of coins, curios, gems, antique jewelry, rare glass, paintings, and a variety of aesthetic objects. His business parlors are on the first floor of his dwelling in the best business section of the city and are full of interesting things of preceding classification. Mr. Collins is prematurely grey, but of animated and very social disposition, and his experience, remarkable memory, and great enthusiasm make his shop very interesting. His private collection of cents is doubtless the best that exists.