STAN KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART FIVE

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V27 2024 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 27, Number 29, July 21, 2024, Article 18

Greg Bennick's latest interview for the Newman Numismatic Portal is with New York dealer Stan Kesselman. Here's the fifth part, where Stan talks about collector R.L. Miles, dealer Eddie Shapiro, and getting an education from wealthy collectors. -Editor

GREG BENNICK: Are there coins that you wish you handled that you never had a chance to?

STANLEY KESSELMAN: I was only doing this part time. So, my first biggest customer was R.L. Miles. I don't know if you heard of him. There was a Stacks sale way back.

GREG BENNICK: Yeah, I'm not sure if I do. But yeah, I'll have to look him up.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: He did oysters, I think. Virginia Beach is where he lived. And they called him Skinny Miles because he was very, very skinny and tall. And I sold him the last twenty some odd coins that he needed on his want list. And what kept me in business was the following. That I lived in New York. And there were coin dealers in New York who would go to Europe and go to European banks and bring back the coins because the banks didn't care what the dates were. So, there was Eddie Shapiro. I don't know if you heard of him.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: There was William Donner. Another dealer. Who went over there. William Donner told me the story of his, he's over at a bank in Switzerland. And he has a bag of $20 gold pieces. And his wife put her hand through the twenties to pick out the first one. And it was a 1921 twenty. The first one, which he bought for like $45, which was probably worth $2,000 then.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: And then they went through the whole bag. And there was not another good one in it. She picked out the only good one in the bag the first time.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: And Eddie Shapiro would go there and he'd bring back the gold coins. And I had a theory that I wanted to get there first. And the only way I get there first is that these people like me. And I give them a check immediately. Whatever I bought, I paid for. And they appreciated that. Because since they put out so much money to buy the coins, they needed money back then.

And I bought a lot from Eddie Shapiro. And I got great satisfaction as I was leaving, and some other coin dealer would be walking in. He'd be next.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: Yeah. And they showed their coins at Morgan Guaranty Bank at 43rd and Fifth Avenue. They didn't have stores. But they obviously paid the people where they had their vaults, which was a huge vault. You can sleep 100 people in that vault.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: And Chase finally bought Morgan Guaranty. But they'd have people coming every half hour or every hour. You were first. They were second. There was a third. Whatever. So, I loved it when I left. And somebody else would-be coming in. And they'd say, hi, Stanley. And I'd say, hi. Whatever they bought also went up a lot. Because the coin market was very inexpensive back then.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: For sure. But I got a lot of the coins from Europe. And Michael had the customers in Dallas, because they all had oil money. So, I'd be down there every month selling to his people. And I had access to the coins, which no one else did to start with. And I would not be afraid to inventory one, two, three, four of the same coin. I couldn't care how many I had. I had at one time, I'd say, four or five, 1883 twenties in proof. I had 1875 half eagles. I had at least five or six at one time. I had four proofs. Because no one else would buy them. I treated them as shares of stock. I treated every coin as 100 shares of stock. There's nothing wrong with having 200 shares of stock or 300 shares. So, I'd just buy them.

But I ended up, it's hard to sell. If you have five of the coin, that's very rare. Now you have four of the coin. And it takes another year to find another customer for you to coin. But I have no coins left at all. I'm done. All my customers are no longer here. There's a new generation of people with vast resources, they have unbelievable customers with unbelievable funds. And I can't compete anymore at all.

GREG BENNICK: Well, it sounds like you had an incredible time in the years that you were in coins, without a doubt. These stories have been fantastic.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: Well, the best part of the thing was meeting the people. They educated me. They were richer, smarter. And they come from different places. Dallas, Texas, Beverly Hills, California, Virginia Beach. And they were all successful. And they taught the whole group of us things besides coins. Again, they taught us backgammon. They taught us manners. They taught us how to… you know a lot of coin dealers never went to college. Some probably didn't finish high school. So, as people, their manners may not be too good. They may not dress too well. They could be still good people. But they're somewhat unsophisticated. And a lot of them have too much money.

So, you know, he helped us in that regard. How to treat people. How to be nice to people. And if you have more money than they are, you can still be humble. I try to be as humble as I can with people. A lot of people. And I see it works well. It's much better than being a braggart or something like that.

GREG BENNICK: Of course. I agree. I think that's great. I think that's great. Is there anything that we didn't cover that I didn't ask about? Or that you maybe have recollected as you've been telling stories? I'm happy to listen to stories all afternoon.

About the Interviewer
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime on the web or via instagram @minterrors.