The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 46, November 14, 2004, Article 16

DEPARTMENT STORE COIN SHOPS: TOUGH TO MAKE THE RENT

  Regarding our earlier discussions of coin shops in
  Department stores, Henry Bergos writes: "Gimbels
  Coin stores used to be owned by Friedberg. When we
  were friends he told me that when he closed them he
  reduced his gross income by about 90% and increased
  his net by about 50%. Overhead ate him alive. I used
  to go to the one in downtown Brooklyn with a friend
  of mine when I was a kid. They didn't do enough
  business to make it worth while."

  Larry Gaye writes: "The wonderful old Hudson's
  department store (all thirteen stories) on Woodward
  Ave. in Detroit had a superb coin department in their
  mezzanine.  This store was where everyone went to shop
  for everything because there was no place else to shop
  except downtown as there were no malls.  People still
  lived in the city and the suburbs were just starting.
  You had to take the bus downtown as most people only
  had one car.  The reason for this is that only the
  father worked and you did your shopping on Saturday.
  It was a major treat to go downtown and you had to
  dress for the occasion even if traveling by city bus.

  I can remember early in my numismatic career seeing
  coins and other numismatic material there that other
  coin shops didn't carry. Purchases there included
  uncirculated 100 Ruble Notes of Nicholas II for .50
  each, and you could get consecutive serial numbers to
  boot.  Another purchase was my first commemorative half,
  a Colombian Half dollar in AU for .75, I should have
  sprung for the UNC, it was only a buck; at age 7 or 8
  a dollar was hard to come by.

  I will never forget the place.  The entire building was
  demolished a few years ago and with it a lot of dreams.
  Incidentally, Hudson's was the place for the Thanksgiving
  Parade every year and going to that parade was a real
  treat.

  The second department store is here in Portland, Meier
  and Frank.  They had a coin shop in their downtown store.
  It was quite a good shop though I wasn't in Portland soon
  enough to take advantage of it.  I believe the coin shop
  closed around ten years ago. The store is going strong."

  Pete Smith writes: "Please allow me to participate in the
  discussion of department store coin shops. Although I
  believe some of this is "common knowledge" among
  bibliophiles, some may learn from it.

  Robert Friedberg (1912-1963) established a coin department
  at Gimbels in New York. Gradually he expanded to shops in
  other Gimbels branches plus other department stores until
  his network covered 38 states. He also established the
  Coins and Currency Institute. At the time of his death he
  employed 125 people. Thus many of the leased department
  shops were related.

  There is a literature connection. It is my understanding
  that generic price lists were produced and then overprinted
  with the name of the local department store. I have not
  seen enough on the secondary market to confirm this. I
  don't know if most were discarded or if there is not
  enough interest to list them in literature sales.

  On to Mark Borckardt's comments on Howard Newcomb. Newcomb
  retired in 1927 which I believe is too early for department
  store coin shops.  Newcomb, Endicott & Co. was absorbed
  into Hudson's Store in Detroit. Hudson's later merged with
  Dayton's in Minneapolis. Dayton's spun off a discount chain
  called Target. After Target outgrew Dayton's, the company
  name was changed to Target Corporation and the department
  stores became Marshall-Fields branches. Then Target sold
  off the non-productive department store subsidiary. In
  effect the child divorced the parent.

  Dayton's had a coin department that I visited in the 1960s.
  I think the shop remained there quite a while. I may have
  bought supplies there but couldn't afford their coins."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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