MORE ON DEALER NORMAN BROCK

Regarding coin dealer Norman Brock, Rick Stroman writes:

I'm not able to answer David Hirt's questions about how long Norman Brock produced his periodical, but I do have some interesting Brock items to share. The first is his vendor stamp on a rare Whitman coin board for two-cent and nickel three-cent pieces from 1937. I also have several of his wooden nickels circa 1950 that include three different varieties. Both have the standard Indian head on their other sides.

Norman Howard Brock was a very active and longtime member of the ANA. He was born in Wisconsin October 12, 1908 and was approved for membership July 1, 1935 as Number 4789. He became active as a part time dealer in commemoratives when that series was hot 1935-36 and announced in 1937 that he was becoming a coin dealer full time and opening a store at 108 Broadway in San Antonio. Just three years later he announced his retirement in another ad. No reason was given, but his other ads shortly before made reference to the collapse of commemorative prices. By 1943, however, he was back in business at a different address, 317 Navarro. He remained there for ten years or more, before moving to two successive addresses on Commerce Street sometime in the 1950s.

Brock appears to have been married twice, the first time in 1932 to Lorraine and then again in 1937 to Laurine. It's possible that these were the same person, since public records often misspell names, but in his 1937 ad announcing his full time dealer status he described himself as a newlywed. They had a son, Norman Howard Brock, Jr., in 1940.

Brock sponsored many new members over the years, and he was lauded by the ANA in 1991 as among its longest term members, this announcement coming just about the time he died. Among his new member sign-ups in 1938 was Maurice D. Scharlack, another San Antonio dealer and brother-in-law of coin board publisher Robert Ritterband (Lincoln Printing Company).

I found a cash donation to the ANA from Norman, Jr. in 2006, but I don't know whether he's an ANA member.

Finally, I came across a curious advertisement of his from the April 1945 issue of The Numismatist that was more in the nature of a declaration. I'd been saving it for my own Coin Board News, but it's suitable here, too. Brock chides himself and his fellow dealers for the good times they've enjoyed during the war years, while so many are suffering or sacrificing their lives.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MAY 15, 2016 : Query: How Long Was Brock's Attic Issued? (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n20a12.html)

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