WALTER B. GOULD (1848-1932)

Walter B. Gould (1848-1932), was born at East Corinth, Penobscot County, Maine, on February 29, 1848, son of Robinson Gould (1820-1872), a butcher at Bangor, Maine, and Elizabeth J. Huse Gould (1818-1904).

Walter B. Gould was a merchant lifelong and in retirement became a coin and stamp dealer. He is best known for his pioneering research on counterstamped Large Cents from 1914 to 1921.

In 1871, he was married Nellie A. Gould (1847-), a native of Maine. They had a son named Edgar W. Gould (1874-1921). In 1871 he was a confectionary dealer with the firm of Messrs. Boyd at Bangor, Maine. In 1872, he opened a confectionary store Walter B. Gould & Co., Bangor, Maine. In 1880, he was a fruit dealer who also sold tobacco.

Walter B. Gould's U. S. Copper Cents collection 1793 - 1856 numbered 20,000 specimens and was stored in a 6 peck sized glass jar. The news report was published throughout the country the entire year with dates of the oldest Cent ranging from 1703 to 1796 from reporters who were obviously not collectors.

On October 21, 1908, he married Rebecca F. Moody (1843-), of Everett, Massachusetts, at Bangor, Maine.

In the U. S. Census 1910 he was a widower living in Aroostook, Presque Isle, Maine with his brother Arthur Gould and sister-in-law Mary Frances Gould. He was a lumberman who owned a sawmill.

In 1911, he married his third wife Mertie E. Hartley (1869-), of Maynard, Massachusetts, daughter of James L. Phillips and Frances L. Littlefiled, on February 23rd at the Methodist Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

In 1913, he lived in Winterport, Maine, and applied for membership in the A. N. A. In April 1913, he was assigned A.N.Member No. 1677. In 1913, he began to trade as a coin and stamp dealer.

In the July 1917 issue of The Numismatist, on page 306, "Numismatists Aid the Red Cross," Walter B. Gould raised funds for the Red Cross by donating 5,000 old U. S. Copper Cents placing them in drug stores to be sold for 10 cents apiece. At his labor and expense all mailing and collections were made giving the entire proceeds to the Red Cross Society.

Gould sent in to the May 1914 issue of Collector's Blue Book, a report that he had two bushels of Large Cents of which eighty had countermarked names. In the August 1921 issue of The Numismatist, on pages 331-332, and page 378 in September, in Frank Duffield's, "A Trial List of the Countermarked Coins of the World," he contributed to the article on countermarked coins with stencil dies cut for Ben Parker with his counterstamp B. Parker. Also J. W. Strange, and his son C. A. Strange, and Thomas J. Stewart as T.J.S., in a large group of personal names stamped on coppers in the Gould collection.

Gould knew Ben Parker and J. W. Strange when he was a boy. They were both metalworkers and brass founders. Russ Rulau wrote about them in his book, U. S. Trade Tokens 1866-1889 (Iola : Krause, 1988). These were later on written about by Dr. Gregory G. Brunk in the February 1989 issue of The Numismatist. Later Brunk published his classic work Merchant and Privately Countermarked Coins.

He and his wife attended the 1921 A.N.A. Convention and are in the official photograph.

[Here is his] advertisement selling lot of 51 Large Cents with original Mint luster for $16.00. Set of bound volumes of American Journal of Numismatics 1874-1879 for only $10. A large lot of 42 bound coin coin books + pamphlets, catalogues and fixed price lists valued in 1926 at $100 selling at close out price for $25. George, David, and Charles there are still deals out there!

He died on July 26, 1932. He is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine. His Diaries are in the Bangor Public Library.

To read the complete article, see:
GOULD, WALTER B. (https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/www/numismaticmall-com/gould-walter-b)

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