INTERVIEW: DOUG WINTER

CM: When one thinks about U.S. gold coinage and the personalities most tied to the field, two names are bound to come up: you, and David Akers. What was your relationship with David Akers and how did his series of books change the landscape for collecting classic U.S. gold?

DW: I met David when I was in my twenties. He was someone I was always in awe of. I was intimidated by him at first. He was also very helpful to me and was definitely somebody that inspired me.

One of the ways he inspired me when I was younger, in my 20s in the 1980s, was the way Akers would walk in to an auction and he’d buy the three or four coins I could only dream about buying… and then he’d get up and leave.

I thought, someday I want to get to the point where I don’t have to sit through a 3,000 coin auction to find a coin here and there that slipped through the cracks.

His books were a huge bellwether for the market. For the first time, Akers put all the information about classic U.S. gold in one place. For a lot of people, the books stirred an interest in gold coins. And while I don’t use the books anymore because they are more or less out of date, I can say that if you read the comments Akers made about the coins 30 years ago, they turn out to be amazingly accurate.

CM: You co-authored your own series of U.S. gold coin guides with Michael Fuljenz. How did your approach differ from what David Akers had put together?

DW: I used the Akers books as a little bit of an inspiration, actually. But what I’ve always tried to do with any book that I’ve written is I’ve tried to make the books a guide that can be used by collectors at all levels. I want my books to be useful for beginners and experts. So, my goal wasn’t to provide historical background or mint research, but instead, what I’ve tried to do is to give collectors a feel about each issue in a series: what it’s strike is like, how the surfaces come, what range of colors should you expect, how to gauge the quality of the coin’s luster.

My books are written to give collectors an idea of what they are looking at and what they should be looking for. They are essentially buyers’ guides. If you are making a decision to buy a coin, the information in the books Mike and I wrote is useful.

CM: Do you think the two of you will revisit that series and update them?

DW: I’d love to, but the problem is time. These days I’ve put more focus on writing shorter articles that go up on my website and on CoinWeek. But some of the things I want to do in the next couple of years: Redo my Carson City book because it’s hugely out of date. Do another edition of the New Orleans book. And I’d like to write something on San Francisco coinage, but that’s a really time intensive endeavor.

To read the complete article, see: CoinWeek Q&A with U.S. Gold Coin Expert Douglas Winter (www.coinweek.com/marketplace/coinweek-qa-u-s-gold-coin-expert-douglas-winter/)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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