ARNO SAFRAN INTERVIEW, PART THREE

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V27 2024 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 27, Number 39, September 29, 2024, Article 19

Greg Bennick's latest interview for the Newman Numismatic Portal is with collector and author Arno Safran. Here's the third part, where Arno talks about some of his favorite coins and the clubs he belongs to. -Garrett

GREG BENNICK: Oh, that's great. Now, what other coins were favorites of yours that you owned in your collection?

ARNO SAFRAN: Well, that's one of them that you just heard me talk about [an 1825 dime].

ARNO SAFRAN: I have a lot. It's hard to answer that question, you know, shortly. I do articles now supporting Charles Barber. I mean, he came in a time which was the end of the entire beginning of numismatics in America. And he was old hat. But you have St. Gaudens and all his, disciples doing magnificent stuff with coins, a brand-new modern music like this and modern coins. And so, he was considered the no-no.

But when you look at his designs, especially half dollars and quarters that are uncirculated in 64 or 63, even that, they're gorgeous. They're works of art. They're beautiful. The designs are magnificent. They're just perfect. Oh, and you look at a Franklin half: you've got a lot of space on either side of it, which can get damaged or something in the marks, nicks. You don't see that on the Barber coinage because they're so filled up with information. You know, the stuff that's in there. I mean, the man was a total pro and a couple of my friends here, they love Barber's coinage. And I do, too, even though it's old hat. So, I think that you have to look at each particular artist and look at what they did in a positive way rather than a negative way.

GREG BENNICK: That certainly makes sense. I'm just glad that you have such a strong connection to these particular coins. And, you know, you've been collecting now it's going on almost 50 years and still have the passion for it, which I always love hearing. It's just so inspiring and I'm sure would be to any young numismatist listening and reading the interview that comes from this, because it's really good to hear that people hold on to passions and favorites even after time passes.

ARNO SAFRAN: Yeah, it has probably kept me alive, of course doing the research. After I left college and got enough pension, my wife, the same thing. We came down here because of the beautiful area. It's - this is north of Augusta - a town called Evans. North of us are the beautiful lakes and reservoirs. And there's lots of trails and all kinds of things. We used to walk around all these wonderful things together. And people are friendly. And the biggest problem, whether it's up in New Jersey, Pennsylvania or down here, that people who belong to coin clubs are not very interested in buying stuff.

They go to the auctions. They buy crap. They don't care. They enjoy it. You can't get them to go to shows. I mean, northwestern Georgia, and the south in Chattanooga…it has a wonderful show with the Blue Ridge Group and then the Georgia itself and then in Greenfield, South Carolina, you have the South Carolina state group. Good shows. And then, of course, you have the one down in Florida. And then when I was up in New Jersey, we used to love to go to Baltimore. I had a lot of friends there.

ARNO SAFRAN: Yeah, he lives down in Florida now, but he was a collector, he collected a lot of dollars, a wonderful guy. He had more money. He was, he sold cars. He did a lot better than I did financially. He has a wonderful collection also. But I can't reach him anymore. He had a problem with his daughter. And I guess maybe I may have said something wrong and he got a little afraid and can't talk to me on the phone. But he's another one that has some very good collection. But he doesn't do anything in terms of what I do. He doesn't go beyond that.

A lot of guys became what they call like dealers when they retired. I used to belong to the New Jersey Numismatic Society. Are you familiar with that?

GREG BENNICK: I've heard the name, or at least it sounds familiar certainly.

ARNO SAFRAN: Back in the 1980's and 90's, we had the older guys who were, you know, collecting stuff when they were young, yet old enough to be our fathers. They had incredible stuff because it was so cheap when they bought it. They taught us a lot of stuff. And David Lange was a member of that club. He was a genius to begin with. We all recognize his talent, you know, referring to he passed away recently.

I don't know if you knew that, but David Lange was a member of that club. We had some very talented young men and one or two women. But very seldom they came and this was a good show, a good meeting once a month. And it still exists, even though I'm no longer up there. And that helped me a lot. That taught me a lot.

GREG BENNICK: Yeah. I was going to ask you, who were your biggest influences in the hobby? Who were the people who influenced you the most?

ARNO SAFRAN: Well, that club was the most influential. Because you're learning from an older group of men who, you know, got a lot of incredible knowledge about large cents and half cents, as well as the other coins. They got this stuff for pennies back in the 1920s, 30s when they were buying that stuff. They taught us a lot of stuff, too. And then they also collected foreign some of them. They had incredible collections of foreign coins. Mostly ancients, which was nice and like I said, you just can't collect everything.

I have a friend named Jim Barry now, who's retired. He had a wonderful collection of ancient coins down here. But he also came from northern New York and on Long island, and he and his wife came down He's still alive. But he's got arthritis. So he doesn't collect anymore. He sold it.

But I still, you know, I do the newsletters. So, by doing the newsletters, I took pictures of all the coins and I do them in groups. I do them separately and I do them all together, at the end of the and then I talk about it. Sometimes I mention what they cost, other times I don't. I don't want to get too involved with that. But, uh, I let in what it costs then and what they cost now, and there's been a drop in Barbers for the last two or three years. In which coins that I bought for maybe four hundred dollars, are now worth three hundred dollars. Who knows why that happens? I have no idea.

GREG BENNICK: Now, the newsletters that you do, you do which newsletters? You do the newsletter for Augusta right? And then there's another one you mentioned?

ARNO SAFRAN: Yeah, there's a town in Aiken. I have a short-term memory loss at the stage of my life now. So, far I haven't shown it. But, uh, it comes up. But there's a town there and they have a very high level, it's like Princeton up in New Jersey, very highfalutin. We meet there once a month, and then most of the people there are my age or a little younger. They're very mature, they're very intelligent and that's a nice group of people. We all give programs. It's not just me. Everyone gets a chance to give a program. So, it's very nice. It's a little bit like the New Jersey Numismatic Society, that I belong to. It's in Aiken, South Carolina. It's what they call a big town / city kind of thing.

It's not like Augusta It's a smaller town divided in two places. Something like Cambria, California, where you have two breaks between the city where they have all the restaurants and then the cheaper place where you buy everything. And it meets in that area. That's a heck of a nice little club, even though only about 20 people show up, up to 25. But it's very nice and we all give talks and that's good too.

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.