A sad end for Steve Tanenbaum, NYC token dealer

Steve Tanenbaum died on Friday from injuries suffered after being struck by a car while walking in his Brooklyn neighborhood.

He was killed by the driver of a stollen car, who had previously murdered three other people and stabbed two others, and would continue the next morning to stab several more on a Manhattan subway train.

Sadly, a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As a young collector active in the 1970s and 1980s; NYC held five weekend shows a year, and the firm of Rossa & Tanenbaum had tables at four of them. US Tokens and Medals were there thing - Transportation, Hard Times, Civil War tokens were always in plentiful supply at their tables.

Both were encouraging to a young collector with conversation and insight as to collecting paths, and I think that Steve was pleased that I stuck with tokens and medals, writing and exhibiting them as well.

When I spoke at the ANS's Coinage of the America's Conference, Steve let me borrow his early NYC transportation tokens so that I could pair them up with those in the ANS's collection specimen in the slides, thus eliminating the hazard of dual projection, so often the downfall of many a speaker. Ever helpful in the cause of education.

In related fields, he was a long-standing officer in the Civil War Token Society and quite helpful in their catalogs and publications.

A trajic end.

George