COLONIAL COIN AND STAMP COMPANY COIN BOARDS

I want to extend my thanks to John Lupia and Ron Haller-Williams for sharing what they'd learned about A. C. Roessler. I'm always amazed at how many hobby figures who were so well known in the past can be utterly forgotten today. It demonstrates once again that The E-Sylum is the place to go for picking the brains of the best and brightest in our field.

To show how one entry can easily lead to another, David Crenshaw's correct answer for the quiz about who is looking over the shoulder of actor Victor Buono provides yet another layer to the story.

In the signed photo of Robert Cornely that David submitted is a circa 1937 coin board published by Colonial Coin and Stamp Company of New York City. This firm was owned and operated by Leiser Wolf Schnelling, a German immigrant who became a naturalized citizen in 1933 and published a reference book on United States coins that same year. While his book was little different from the many dealer-issued guides of that decade, his coin boards were another matter. These had clear plastic backings for viewing of both sides of the coins, and that luxury priced them at 35 cents, versus just 25 cents for the boards of Whitman and other publishers.

During the 1930s Colonial Coin and Stamp Company was among the biggest dealers in New York City after Wayte Raymond, rivaling Stack's and New Netherlands, both of which entered the business that same decade. Schnelling was active in the Bronx Coin Club and also was listed as a donor to the ANS, but I could find no evidence that he ever joined the ANA. Schnelling appears to have dropped out of sight during the 1940s, the last document I could find being his 1942 draft registration card. He was then too old for military service, so his date and cause of death remain unknown to me.

I'm attaching some images of the coin board that appears on Robert Cornely's desk in the book photo. One of these is a close-up of the illustrations just barely visible in the Cornerly photo.

I've since found some additional information about Schnelling. He was released from military service just four months after his September 29, 1942 enlistment. No cause was stated, but at the age of 45 he was likely just too old by the standards of the time. He died August 21, 1981 in North Hollywood, California, just shy of 84. I'd still like to know what happened during that gap of nearly 40 years, but the trail went cold after his discharge. The federal census for 1950 won't be released until 2021.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
ALBERT CHARLES ROESSLER, JR. (1883-1952) (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n31a16.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JULY 31, 2016 : Quiz Answer: Who's in This 1913 Liberty Nickel Picture? (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n31a14.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web