STAN KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART EIGHT

GREG BENNICK: So, any other stories, funny or otherwise, you've got about anybody else before we go?

STANLEY KESSELMAN: There was a collector in New York. His name was Milton Kaufman and he collected gold coins and he was a builder. And in the basement of his building, maybe four-story building, he built a bank vault with a real bank vault door. And he put his coins in there on the wall because you like to look at them every day. And he had the best set of New Orleans twenties in the world. He had a set of CC twenties, Carson City twenties. And he just loved and he had them all in plastic holders. All in as a set. Max Humber from Paramount sold him the 1870 CC twenty, for $6,000. Nice, very fine. Anybody would have paid $6,000 for it at that point in time. But I guess he wanted to make the first coin, you know, affordable.

Max had somebody in Europe who went through all the banks and sent him all the coins. And they got the dates for free because the banks again didn't care what date it was. So, everything was fine. And we traveled, Milton and I, to Denver for the coin show. And I introduced him to Abe Kosoff. I said, Abe, this is my friend, Milton Kaufman. His checks are good. You know. So, Abe says, I would have taken this check at any time, except now you told me about it, I don't know if I'm going to take it anymore because of the reference. That's what he told him. Everybody laughed. It's just funny.

GREG BENNICK: It's great.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: So, Milton came back home. And one day, they tried to break into his building. They had jackhammers. They had a police scanner to scan the police radio. And they caught him. But he was so scared for his family. And everybody knew he had coins. They are valuable. He called me up and said he had to get rid of these coins within a week. And I called up Jerry Cohn again and Abner Kreisberg. Jerry Cohn bought the coins. And I charged Milton Kaufman $500 for the service. And Jerry Cohn said he paid me $500. And he came and picked up all the coins. But again, this was a time when the coin market was very bad. Yeah. And Jerry Cohn could not sell the coins at all. Milton Kaufman gave me the $500 immediately. Jerry Cohn never paid me the $500.

GREG BENNICK: Really?

STANLEY KESSELMAN: He said he lost money on the deal. And I never pressed it. You lose money, I don't want his $500.

GREG BENNICK: Sure.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: But the coins ended up going through very, very famous collections. I'm trying to remember. The guy from Virginia Beach, the dealer, what's his name?

GREG BENNICK: Del Loy Hanson.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: Yes. Yes, that's who it is. He ended up, there you go. He ended up with the coins.

GREG BENNICK: Yeah, Del Loy Hanson.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: And yeah, he ended up. And I have never met him, but I'm sure he has an unbelievable collection.

GREG BENNICK: Oh, it's incredible.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: Yeah. And Del Loy also was condition conscious. He improved coin by coin for a lot of times. And now they're selling his duplicates and all his other coins, which are also beautiful coins. His duplicates are fantastic.

GREG BENNICK: For sure.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: So, I guess that's about it that I can come up with.

GREG BENNICK: Well, this has been amazing. I appreciate you and your time and your story so much.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: I don't think I have any more, but that's it. It was a fun time. And the greatest part of the hobby was not the money, but meeting people from different places who were older than I was. And they educated me in different fields because they had better knowledge and they were older. And that was the fun. They spoke differently, had different values. Come from different places. But everybody was friendly with everybody else. It was wonderful relationships just to have.

GREG BENNICK: I love it.

STANLEY KESSELMAN: And every week I was on an airplane someplace else, either Beverly Hills or Dallas, Texas, meeting people. And it was a fun life. It's a wonderful hobby. And it's also a pleasure to have met you, you know, to do this.

GREG BENNICK: Absolutely. I appreciate you so much. I'm so glad we did.

For everybody listening. This has been an amazing interview with Stanley Kesselman. And I just really appreciate the time you've spent today. And a lot of people are really going to appreciate the stories you've told.

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.

To watch the complete video, see:
Stanley Kesselman Interviewed for the NNP by Greg Bennick (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/638521)

To read the complete transcript, see:
Stanley Kesselman Interviewed for the NNP by Greg Bennick (Transcript) (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/638520)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
STANLEY KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART ONE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n25a06.html)
STANLEY KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART TWO (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n26a13.html)
STANLEY KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART THREE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n27a11.html)
STANLEY KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART FOUR (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n28a17.html)
STANLEY KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART FIVE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n29a18.html)
STANLEY KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART SIX (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n30a19.html)
STANLEY KESSELMAN INTERVIEW, PART SEVEN (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n31a13.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web