Boston and Manhattan

[Etcherdude]

Any recommendations of must visit ancient coin dealers in either city?

[DonnaML]

I think Stack's Bowers may have moved to a new location, but I am pretty sure that they still have retail premises in midtown Manhattan.

Edited June 18, 2022 by DonnaML

[JeandAcre]

Sorry, @Etcherdude, for the following, with its irreducibly irrelevant self-indulgence.  And you have my cordial best wishes for someone here giving you some actual, even useful advice for how to navigate Boston and Manhattan in real time.

But you set off some serious nostalgic synapses, about the only time I was in Manhattan, as a kid.  (This was summer 1973.)

I had all of my savings (...I'm 11; Just, Never mind) waiting to go from wallet, to hot little hand, to that of someone who had stuff the like of which I'd never seen.  There was one dealer with a shop in Grand Central Station, and one on the street. 

--They're probably both well known to people here, if likely no longer with us.  At this remove, that's all I can know about that.  Except, the guy in Grand Central Station sold me --Dirt Cheap, by any contemporary standard-- a Republican denarius of M. Cipius M.f. (Sear, 1974, 184), and one of Hadrian. 

After a couple of years of collecting late radiates and LRBs, these were the two denarii I'd ever landed.  ...It was only a few years later, via mail-order catalogues from the same part of the world, that I got my first one from anywhere in the 1st c. CE /the 'Twelve Caesars.'  One of Vespasian; nothing to write home about, except it was a personal landmark on the same level as the other ones.

...The guy in the shop above ground sold me a penny that he had as Edward III.  It was in amazing condition, and I paid a Frightening $10 for it.  ...But I was already gravitating toward the earliest Western medieval I could find, and the reign was on the side of being disappointingly late.  It took many years (Long after I'd sold it) for it to land on me that it just might have been from Edward III's first coinage, under the, ahem, administration of Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella.  Distinguished by the Lombardic 'N's, only begun under Edward II.

With that as unblinkingly self-indulgent context, @Etcherdude, you have my cordial best wishes about what, and whoever you find under the prevailing conditions.

Edited June 19, 2022 by JeandAcre

[Etcherdude]

Just visited the fine arts complex at Harvard. They have a remarkably user friendly display of amazingly well struck ancients. I’ll post photos when able.

[Etcherdude]

Finally made it to the upper floor of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and in the Greco-Roman collection came upon a room of pristine ancient numismatics in well lighted displays with moveable magnifying devices. I’ll post images when able. Boston has some amazing coins!

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Glad that you found some interesting coins in your travels. On the west coast, the Stanford Museum of Fine Arts has a large collection of Ptolemaic coins of Egypt, mainly hundreds of tetradrachms from Ptolemy Soter to Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII.

[Etcherdude]

Here are my best photographic results from visits to the Harvard and Boston Museums' numismatic ancients.

Harvard

 

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

[Ed Snible]

Even when it was just Stacks, you couldn’t simply walk in and ask to look through boxes of flips in their inventory.  You had to already know what you wanted, and ask to see it specifically.

 

I found some good things at Lou’s Coin Shop 15 years ago, but I haven’t visited since it moved to Brooklyn.  https://www.brooklynpaper.com/little-shop-of-coppers-slope-rare-coin-dealer-keeps-old-timey-hobby-rolling/

 

[Etcherdude]

13 minutes ago, Ed Snible said:

Even when it was just Stacks, you couldn’t simply walk in and ask to look through boxes of flips in their inventory.  You had to already know what you wanted, and ask to see it specifically.

 

I found some good things at Lou’s Coin Shop 15 years ago, but I haven’t visited since it moved to Brooklyn.  https://www.brooklynpaper.com/little-shop-of-coppers-slope-rare-coin-dealer-keeps-old-timey-hobby-rolling/

 

I didn’t have enough time to shop for coins. They’re too many distractions in NYC!

[DonnaML]

1 hour ago, Ed Snible said:

Even when it was just Stacks, you couldn’t simply walk in and ask to look through boxes of flips in their inventory.  You had to already know what you wanted, and ask to see it specifically.

 

I found some good things at Lou’s Coin Shop 15 years ago, but I haven’t visited since it moved to Brooklyn.  https://www.brooklynpaper.com/little-shop-of-coppers-slope-rare-coin-dealer-keeps-old-timey-hobby-rolling/

 

The only exception is that you could stand and look at the coins they had out in their display cases, and point to specific coins you wanted to see. I haven't been there since they moved their store/offices to Park Ave & 58th Street not so long ago, and I don't know what kind of set-up they have now.