Both January 10, 2009 auction sale catalogues, illustrated in full color, are now accessible at my web site: www.numislit.com

Edward Cogan was the first full time coin dealer in the United States. However, he did not enter the profession until middle age. Thus, the Chapmans Samuel Hudson and Henry have the distinction of being this countrys first career numismatists.

Samuel Hudson, the elder by two years, was born in 1857. Both boys took up stamp collecting at a tender age, a hobby which doubtless influenced their seeking employment with Captain John Haseltine in 1876. After a brief apprenticeship, the firm of S. H. and H. Chapman, Numismatists and Antiquaries, was formed in June 1878. The principals were twenty-one and nineteen years of age at the time, a fact which did not stand in the way of their being aggressive buyers of coins from the very beginning.

Serious and scholarly, S. H. played the role of senior partner in the business. He possessed a strong interest in the classics and, even more fortuitously as matters were to turn out, considerable skills as a photographer. Henry was more the extrovert and, it may be inferred, shouldered the primary responsibility for administering the concerns affairs.

The Chapmans had been in business barely a year when they conducted their first auction. Sale one, which consisted of selections from stock, was notable for the quality of its content as well as the innovative introduction of phototype plates.

One of the major foundation works of modern scholarly numismatics. Eckhel is regarded as the "father of ancient numismatics..."