ON OLD NUMISMATIC PHOTOGRAPHS

It's interesting how investigating one item often leads to a string of discoveries. Occasionally I buy old photographs that include numismatic content, many of these coming from dispersed newspaper archives as print media dwindles. One such photo is attached and shows a view of Riverside Coin Co., its window declaring that it's also The Wooden Nickel Co. I thought this was just too interesting to pass up, and when the photo arrived I did a search on both names. I actually found several wooden nickels for sale on eBay that were issued by Riverside Coin Company in San Antonio. The seller's photo of one entry is attached.

Reflected in the store's window is the rear end of an early 1960s automobile, so that probably gives us a good idea of when the photo was taken. I'm tempted to conclude that it's a Ford Falcon, my first set of wheels, but others may disagree. I was curious whether this coin store is still in operation, so I googled "coin stores in San Antonio." Sure enough the store is still there at the same address, 431 E. Commerce Street, but now its name is Royalty Coins. I immediately recognized that as a company from which I'd bought coins myself some years ago at a show.

In the same day's mail as the photograph was a brochure for The ELBE Line of stamp albums and stock books. It's quite small when folded, as in the photo, but it opens up to a rather grand expanse. Why would I want a stamp collecting catalog? Well, a few years after this 1952-dated flyer was issued ELBE began making ring binders to hold Raymond National and Meghrig American coin album pages. These binders are included in my book on those two album lines, and a couple photos of the ELBE binder are attached.

Finally, I have one more photo from 1967 that shows two New Orleans boys, Bryce J. Le Blanc, age 12 and his brother Gregory, 10, examining an old coin. I think it's fairly easy to determine the nature of the coin shown, though not its date. Readers may want to offer their own attributions, so I'm including a high resolution close up of it.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web