PETER ROSA'S COIN REPLICAS

Working with Peter Rosa from 1964 until his death in 1990, I'm the last person living that knows what he created and how he made his dies, molds, and coins.

While selling Rosa's ancient coin replicas on eBay I was contacted a number times with questions about the history Rosa's early American coins. I also received Google alerts from the forum CoinTalk, about the authenticity of early American coins that collectors and non-collectors had acquired. Some of these turned out to be Peter Rosa coin replicas.

So I'm starting this blog to document Peter Rosa's vast work of the Colonial and Early American coin reproductions and someday possibility turn it into a reference book. I'm hoping that this will be a worthwhile reference for early American coin collectors and anyone that may have questions about their America colonial coin.

After serving in the Coast Guard during world war two Peter Rosa became a Merchant Marine and would make frequent trips to England from New York on cargo ships. During these trips Peter would visit the British Museum and purchase plaster cast impressions of their ancient Greek, Roman and Early American coins. This was how he was able to amass such a large and diverse collection of beautiful and rare coin impressions.

Peter Rosa and I grew up not far from Yankee Stadium in the south Bronx. He opened Becker Reproductions on 156th street between Melrose and Cortland avenues, and I started working for him there in 1964 at the age of 13.

I have his 1960's Becker Reproductions' production molds, and I'm able to continue to make his coins using the same techniques that we used at Becker Reproductions. I have been selling some of these coins on eBay since 2003.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: MORE ON PETER ROSA COPIES (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n05a14.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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