ARTICLE PROFILES COLLECTOR PAUL BULGERIN

I found out that the man behind the eBay handle samhan_53024 is Paul Bulgerin a Pastor from Grafton, WI. After several years of buying from him I recently had a chance to talk to him about the hobby. Paul's dad was his primary numismatic motivation, "My father was a coin collector; he was a pastor too." According to Bulgerin his dad didn’t have much extra cash raising eight kids, but he did manage to pull some interesting coins from circulation. "If someone put silver coins in the coffee money pot, he would buy it out. I remember as a kid he used to get Numismatic News."

Paul fondly relayed his first visit to a coin shop with his dad. "My first trip to a coin store was back in 1970. We lived in Minneapolis. I was 13 and he took me one winter’s day to a little local coin shop. I bought my first coin that day; it was an 1878-S Morgan Dollar."

Yes, the pastor still has that 1878-S Morgan and told me that it will never be sold. He has it in his Will to be passed on to his eldest daughter! Interestingly, I still have the first coin that I bought at a coin show. While not a Morgan silver dollar, it is about the same size. A 1963 South African 50 Cent silver coin that I bought in 1970 when I too, was 13 years old!

My Wisconsin friend acquired a few coins through high school but had to put the hobby on hold while he attended college and seminary as he didn’t have any extra funds for numismatics. However when Paul became a pastor in 1984, "Hey I am earning some money; I can buy some coins so I started getting involved with the hobby and have ever since."

My colleague describes himself as a type coin collector. Through the rest of the 1980s he spent time developing relationships with dealers and acquired varied US and world coins for his collection. The following decade’s numismatic experience included Ancient Roman coins. "I was an ancient history major in college and I branched out to Roman coins in the late 1990s and have been an avid collector since."

Paul’s passion for Roman coins and ancient history would influence his next great adventure. "In 2010 I had a sabbatical and I always wanted to do an archaeological dig. I subscribed to Biblical Archaeological Review and they had a story in 2004 about the Roman Fort of Vindolanda in northern England. I read the story and I said that sounds so neat and they take volunteer excavators! So when my sabbatical started approaching in 2010 I applied to be a volunteer at Vindolanda for two weeks and was accepted."

While some financial assistance came from his church about 70% of the finances for this historical junket were funded by the pastor’s coin collection! That is how and why he got on eBay in the first place, to list and sell coins to pay for the trip!

"So in July 2010 I took my family on sabbatical leave. It was wonderful. I actually found four Roman coins while I was digging! To be at that ancient fort and dig those coins out with my own hands was such a thrill."

To read the complete article, see:
Numismatics Worldly Flavor—Big Apple Holds Court To NYINC (www.ngccoin.com/news/article/5744/)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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