NEW DEALER PROFILE: JEREMY BOSTWICK

I noticed the “New Collectors and New Dealers” article in the previous week’s E-Sylum, and thought that I would contribute my perspective on the youth movement in our graying hobby.

Like most of us in coins, I began collecting U.S. around the age of seven, with a few Morgan dollars and a Red Book from my grandfather. As my interest increased beyond my allowance, I learned the Red Book forwards and backwards, and added other books to my collection---literature being the easier buy.

Years later, while looking for some part-time work during college, I started working at the neighborhood coin shop at which I spent many of my younger years admiring coins which I couldn’t possibly acquire. Very quickly, I fell in love with being on “the other side” of the counter, and eventually was fortunate enough to get a job with Classical Numismatic Group, where I moved from US and paper money to ancient coinage.

My knowledge of that area grew, and I then took a job with Atlas Numismatics, switching again to a more modern world coin inventory. Finally, I attempted to control my own destiny within the hobby by focusing even more upon building my numismatic library and fostering the ability to catalog remotely from Pennsylvania (now California), which I currently do for Numismatik Naumann in Vienna.

At that time, I also decided to begin building my own inventory of numismatic items, many of which are medals owing to my growing interest in the underappreciated area of medallic art.

“Numismagram” was started with the idea of addressing the problems presented in the aforementioned article---how does someone young start in this business? (a business which is so dependent upon cash flow and a customer base who knows who you are). Throughout my time in this business, I saw how instrumental longstanding relationships with customers were in creating connections.

With social media, my idea was to bridge the gap between a beginning numismatic enterprise and a potential collecting base (hence, the name, a nod to Instagram). While I’m not sure that we’re there yet, it’s definitely been a great way to reach those to whom you may otherwise have had no way of presenting your material. Also, mirroring the comment about wholsesaling, it’s definitely a decent part of my business, but I am establishing more and more of a retail side to my operation as well, and my website (numismagram.com) is steadily getting increased views, allowing me to turn over inventory a bit faster and acquire even more new items on a regular basis. Attending and setting up at some of the larger coin shows has also served as a great way to get my name out there to other dealers and customers alike who may have known me from working with someone else in the past to now taking a crack at it on my own.

This Swedish medal, commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Nitroglycerin Corporation, does a pretty good job at painting the picture of how these Incan constructions were produced---human labor, and a great deal of human labor at that.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE RARE COIN BUSINESS? : New collectors and New Dealers (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n29a11.html)

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