In October of this year Stack’s Bowers Galleries opened a new gallery on State Street in Boston, Massachusetts, just yards from Faneuil Hall. Each of the four numismatists working in the new gallery (this blog’s author among them), has a distinct numismatic origin story, represented in this blog by their first coins. For most of us, the coins listed were not the first we collected or received as gifts, but the first coin purchased or acquired specifically for its numismatic merits.
Store Manager Stanley Chu was born and raised in Boston and his passion for rare coins was ignited helping count cash at his parents’ bakery. The first coin he plucked from circulation was a 1945 Winged Liberty Head dime; one of his first notable purchases was an Alexander the Great gold stater, bought on a coin show bourse in 1996.
Taking after his parents, both coin collectors, Head Numismatist Kevin Vinton received his first properly collectible coin, an 1840 N-1 large cent, as a gift in 1998.
For numismatist Asher Zelson, a Type I 1913 Indian Head nickel was the first object of numismatic desire, purchased in the early 2010s. Generations of his family collected coins, and exposure to his great-grandfather’s and grandfather’s collections sparked his interest.
I bought my first coin, an 1849 N-1 large cent in a later die state, sometime around 2007-2008. My interest in coins was whet by my paternal grandfather’s coin collection that he assembled during his service in the Second World War.
What was your first coin, readers? Feel free to share by sending an email to cbulfinch@stacksbowers.com – enough responses might be fodder for a future blog.
To learn more about the staff of Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Boston location, and the other accomplished experts at the company, visit https://stacksbowers.com/about-us/our-experts/
