Online coin shop reminds me of old days

I had an email notification the other day from Stack's Bowers.

The venerable auction firm has created an online store that it calls "The Coin Shop."

Naturally, I immediately followed the link to the new offering to see what might be in it.

That is not surprising.

I have followed Q. David Bower's price lists since the late 1960s.

The very first time I got one, I was entranced.

He was a dealer who wrote appealing historical descriptions of the coins offered for sale.

These descriptions went far beyond what was necessary to let a collector know what was being offered for sale.

As entranced with the descriptions as I was, I did not have all that much money as a kid.

I bought one or two coins, usually the cheapest I could find on the list.

The rest was just the fire of hobby desire kindled in my heart about what I would want to collect when I had the money to do so.

On one fateful day, I received a notification from the firm that I had not bought anything recently and would be dropped from the mailing list.

I understood.

Business is business. I was in no position to be a good customer.

But I have never forgotten the stories.

I remember them when I read auction catalog descriptions.

I remembered them on this website.

The best thing about the website is it will not cut off a kid from looking at it because he has no money to buy the beauties being offered.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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