Q.David Bowers
"We now turn our attention to Cincinnati. Mr. Mercer, the only coin dealer, we think, in that city, has a spacious store in the principal business street near the station. He also deals in stamps and curios in great variety and, while frequently having desirable coins, is often indisposed, from general business distractions, to show other pieces than those a collector knows that he needs. This saves time where triflers are in question, but advanced collectors are often tempted by an ample display of stock to buy additional coms.
"We will end our tour in the western metropolis Chicago. Stevens & Co. are found in the third or fourth floor of a large office building in the business center. The 'Co.' we have never seen, but Mr. Stevens is nearly always on deck entrenched behind a line of counters and showcases with a big fireproof at hand. He is a bearded philosopher of a social type, and when stamps and coins and idotic inquirers are not absorbing his time, is always ready to discuss finance, religion, anarchism, or other weighty topic without gloves.
"In addition to the professed coin dealers thus far mentioned, we know personally a number of persons who do a small traffic in connection with some quiet distinct business, but think that they should not be mentioned in line with the regular trade, especially as they are mostly adequate to local patronage only.
"There are a few prominent dealers we know by correspondence merely and cannot therefore have the pleasure of introducing by description. The advertising columns present some of these, but all others interested can thus have their opportunity. In this article we give simply our personal observation without intending to express preference or give advice. Neither would we desire collectors to accept unreservedly the impressions of dealers in regard to each other as jealousies of competition are intense, friendships and enmities undergo phenomenal change, and no one is without some bitter accuser. One collector may have the pleasantest relations with a dealer that another would soon renounce. Each collector, therefore, must learn by personal experience where to buy and when to transfer his patronage. But if a collector understands some trade estimates of the condition of coins, studies priced catalogues to have some idea of values, gives some evidence of his responsibility, gets coins if possible on approval before purchase, pays promptly and promptly returns pieces not desired, he will be apt to get along without many difficulties or suspicions and have the favorable consideration of most of the trade."