TOM BABINSZKI INTERVIEWS THE NUMISMATOURIST

Over the last months I had a few conversations with Dr. Howard Berlin, the Numismatourist. I think the story around his book is just as interesting as the book. I am happy to announce, he agreed to an interview on this blog. I thought my readers would be interested in the background story as well. So, for a lack of better interviewer, I had the pleasure to ask him a few questions.

Tom: Why did you think about publishing a book about money museums?

Numismatourist: At the time I was writing a column, “world Destinations,” in Worldwide Coins, then a sister publication of Coin World. I had material for many more museums that I had visited than I could ever put in my columns, so I thought about putting them together into a book – a topic for which there was no book on the market.

Tom: How did you become interested about this topic?

Numismatourist: I have a number of interests and hobbies. In no particular order of preference, three of them are writing, numismatics, and travel. Currently I have been to more than 60 countries. I like to visit museums when I travel, especially archaeology and history museums (i dislike art museums and exhibits).

Tom: Are you a coin collector?

Numismatourist: Currently, no. I had collected coins and banknotes of the British Palestine Mandate and National banknotes with cities having the town of Berlin, or a variation, such as New Berlin. At the time I had over 35 notes from all such banks except two – the late Chet Krause had the only known known note from charter number 400 from New Berlin, Wisconsin. I also had a number 1 serial $5 note from the National Bank of Berlin, New Jersey and a few uncut sheets of $5 notes from the same bank. I had the pleasure of exhibiting my collections locally and nationally. However, because of its value, security of storing it and transporting material for exhibiting became an increasing problem. After almost 30 years of collecting and exhibiting, I decided to sell the collections to various dealers, most of whom had helped me acquire the items, many of which were rarities. Also, my children, all fully grown, had expressed no interest in numismatics.

Tom: Did you see all the museums in person you wrote about? Numismatourist: In my book, there are about 100 museums that have complete descriptions and photos. Of these, I had visited over 60. Information for the remainder were supplied by the museums themselves.

Tom: Your book inspired me to visit some of the museums you listed. Did you receive any similar feedback when your book was the motivation for someone to visit a museum?

Numismatourist: Yes, several people have e-mailed me or stopped me at Ana shows telling me how it helped with their travels here in the U.s. or abroad.

To read the complete article, see:
Interview with the Numismatourist (http://blindcoincollector.com/2017/08/12/interview-with-the-numismatourist/)

To read the earlir E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: THE NUMISMATOURIST (http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n31a03.html)

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