Reprinted with permission from Q. David Bowers. The article appeared in his renowned book The History of United States Coinage.

In January 1895 the readers of The Numismatist were treated to an interesting article, "A Tour Among the Coin Dealers," by Augustus G. Heaton, a frequent contributor to The Numismatist and the person who had several years earlier advanced the interest in collecting mintmarks of United States coins by publishing a monograph on the subject. Heaton noted that the average member of the American Numismatic Association did not have the opportunity to visit dealers in person but was only able to deal by mail. His article, he stated, "will not only give greater confidence to distrustful or hesitating buyers and their efforts to improve their collection, but will equally benefit all sellers whose integrity and responsibility is evinced in insuing transactions."

The "tour" began in New York City:

"The Scott Stamp and Coin Company has become a conspicuous location on Madison Square, one of the handsomest centers of the metropolis. The stamp department occupies the large and deep first floor of the building and many clerks are employed. The coin department is in a basement floor nearly level with the pavement. Near the show window two or three young ladies are behind a counter, busy at desks, or showing any desired part of the coin stock of several large fireproofs [safes] to the customers. Many coin publications are on the counter. Far in the rear, in a skylit office and numismatic library, is found Mr. Lyman H. Low, the manager. He is a scrupulously attired gentleman in middle life, with white hair, mustache and goatee, a military aspect, but with a brisk genial manner. He is a member of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society of New York, one of the editors of the American Journal of Numismatics, and a man of great experience in the science and of sagacity in business.

"The New York Stamp and Coin Company is located in a spacious room on the second floor of a large building on Union Square. Its manager is D. [David] Proskey, still a young man but one of the best numismatic judges of coins in the trade and very just in valuation. He employs a clerk or two. The room contains a large stock of coins and stamps as well as minerals, curiosities, etc. Mr. H. P. Smith, wealthy collector and a shrewd numismatist, is the capitalist of the business and has brought several of the largest American collections into the market. He is often at the room and at sales and his friendly advice is of great value.

"Not far away along 14th Street is found a well known expert, Mr. Ed. Frossard, who, though of French origin, has an Anglo-Saxon stability of temperament. He is a rather large middle aged man of smooth shaven, pleasant face. He has merely a desk and small fireproof in the office of an insurance company and carries little stock, but generally has some choice pieces to show and often more or less of some collection entrusted to him to be catalogued and sold. He issues at intervals a sheet entitled Numisma and has a wide correspondence regarding coins, curios, and objects of historic interest.

"Going down Broadway, one finds in a third floor front room the latest location of Mr. W. P. Brown, a rather taciturn and bearded philosopher who is most actively occupied in stamps and publications, but has a coin stock which has for years proved worth occasional visits from alert collectors.

"In the middle of downtown business life on John Street will be found the J. W. Scott Company. It occupies a spacious lower floor with two show windows on the street, and its manager, Mr. Scott, and a number of clerks are busy behind the counters and at desks over a large stamp trade. Coins, though subordinate, received considerable attention, and very choice pieces of all kinds are frequently to be found. Numismatic publications are also on hand.

"From this point it does not take long to reach a ferry and train and extend our tour to Philadelphia. Quaker city dealers are notable in giving no outward sign of their occupation, and for their domestic conduct of it. The small door plate HENRY CHAPMAN on a large single house of the quiet Philadelphia type in the best residential section of the city is the only evidence of a widely known firm of brothers of that name. Running the gauntlet of several Scotch terriers, the visitor ascends to a long second floor back room crowded with cabinets, bookcases and tables, pictures, curios, and antiquities. Everything indicates a pressure of business, but a genial reception and rich display of coins awaits the buyer. S. H. Chapman, who is approaching middle life, has very dark hair and beard, a rather pale studious face and large brow and in traveling through Greece in pursuit of numismatic treasures which are his special 'cult,' was always supposed a native. He is a skilled amateur photographer. Mr. H. Chapman is an attractive young gentleman with brown hair, cordial manner, and a fine fresh complexion, but there is nothing 'fresh' about him in business. Both brothers are bachelors and enjoy society, even beyond the Philadelphia brand. The sale catalogues of this firm are unequalled in their accuracy, style, and good taste.

"J. Colvin Randall, a veteran in numismatics, has an attractive residence in the fashionable part of the city. He is well off and keeps up his interest in coins merely as a pastime. His 'den' is a second story back room which is full of cabinets, loaded bookshelves, rare prints, and curios. He has a shrewd genial face fringed with short grey hair and beard, talks fluently in clear cut Saxon, enjoys story telling and with special gusto, when someone's blundering in coins is subject of merriment. From May to November, however, he annually sheds his numismatic shell on the Jersey shore and then collectors may bait their hooks for him in vain.

"Dr. E. [Edward] Maris, whose celebrity as a coin expert and classifier is known to all experienced collectors, is a physician of repute and a member of the Society of Friends. He is now rather advanced in age and occupies a plain, commodious dwelling in the lower part of the city which bears simply his name on a doorplate. The genial doctor is one of the kindest and most conscientious of men. He is rather tall and spare, has a prominent nose and a face of generally strong character, clean shaven, except short side whiskers. The Friend's language is used with a winning voice and altogether one, in meeting him, reveres the moral strength which must have been exercised by such a man as a coin dealer. Of late years, however, he has largely relinquished his temptations, although having collections occasionally confided to him for sale by some intimate or correspondent who would not trust everybody.

"The American Stamp and Coin Company is a new Philadelphia claimant for numismatic business. It is notable from having a show window up Chestnut Street, though as yet the coin stock seems moderate and the stamp business is principal activity.

"Mr. Mason [E. B. Mason, Jr.], long prominent as a Boston coin dealer and editor, has a small shop in Philadelphia near City Hall where he sells coins, stamps, books, stationery, etc. Being thinner than of old and clean shaven, he would not at first be recognized by former patrons. A mention of this dealer leads us next to the city where he was once an authority.

"Mr. H. E. Morey was found by us when last in Boston in a narrow winding street of that city's busiest and most labyrinthine section, in an office on the second floor. A counter and showcase full of coins protected him from the class of people who want to know the premium on V nickels and '53 quarters with rays, and a big fireproof contained stock for a higher class of visitors. There was a little inner room also for retreat and possibly editorial labor, as Mr. Morey issues a little sheet called the Numismatic Quarterly and Catalogue. He is a middle-aged rather quiet man wearing spectacles and has the air of a schoolmaster.

"On a wide street in the same section of the city we found on a third floor front room of an office building the so-called `Numismatic Bank' of W. Von Bergen. The room contained a long counter and showcase of assorted coins, a safe or two, a young lady clerk at a table, and the dealer who is a rather large man with a dark beard and the deliberate manner of his nationality. We drew a few satisfactory copper coins from the 'bank' and made a deposit of some greenbacks and silver to add to its capital.

"From Boston we take a flying leap to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There, in a prominent street, but beyond the business section, we find a low unpretentious but commodious three quarter dwelling where Charles Steigerwalt does quietly by correspondence more business than many merchants. A little ground floor room contains much of his stock which, however, is scattered in part through the house, as but few buyers make a personal visit. For the same reason, his coins are mostly in envelopes ready to mail. The well known dealer is a man of medium height and weight with brown hair and mustache, pleasant face, gentle manner and voice, rather quiet, and middle-aged. His frequent voluminous catalogues, extensive travel to visit large collectors and attend auctions, and his unremitting attention to business have made Lancaster a numismatic metropolis.

"Baltimore comes next in our tour. Dr. George Massamore is there to be sought in two or three places. As a coin dealer, he has a counter, showcase, and fireproof and show window in one side of the store on North Charles Street, the other side being given up to an optician's business. As a dentist he is found at times at his residence, and as a politician he has long held some office at this City Hall. There he is perhaps now less occupied, as the Republicans have been drawing so many teeth of late that his party has very little of even a jaw left. Dr. Massamore is of middle age, of mild pleasant manner, somewhat bald, and has been known many years as a coin dealer of experience and a cataloguer of many collections.

"From Baltimore we journeyed to Washington. There a Mr. B. H. Collins, who was many years in highly responsible positions under Republican administration, has been persuaded by President Cleveland to devote himself entirely to longstanding personal predilections for the purchase and sale of coins curios, gems, antique jewelry, rare glass, paintings, and a variety of aesthetic objects. His business parlors are on the first floor of his dwelling in the best business section of the city and are full of interesting things of preceding classification. Mr. Collins is prematurely grey, but of animated and very social disposition, and his experience, remarkable memory, and great enthusiasm make his shop very interesting. His private collection of cents is doubtless the best that exists.

"We now turn our attention to Cincinnati. Mr. Mercer, the only coin dealer, we think, in that city, has a spacious store in the principal business street near the station. He also deals in stamps and curios in great variety and, while frequently having desirable coins, is often indisposed, from general business distractions, to show other pieces than those a collector knows that he needs. This saves time where triflers are in question, but advanced collectors are often tempted by an ample display of stock to buy additional coins.

"We will end our tour in the western metropolis Chicago. Stevens & Co. are found in the third or fourth floor of a large office building in the business center. The 'Co.' we have never seen, but Mr. Stevens is nearly always on deck entrenched behind a line of counters and showcases with a big fireproof at hand. He is a bearded philosopher of asocial type, and when stamps and coins and idotic inquirers are not absorbing his time, is always ready to discuss finance, religion, anarchism, or other weighty topic without gloves.

"In addition to the professed coin dealers thus far mentioned, we know personally a number of persons who do a small traffic in connection with some quiet distinct business, but think that they should not be mentioned in line with the regular trade, especially as they are mostly adequate to local patronage only.