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BRUCE LORICH ON COIN DEALER ROBERT BATCHELDER
Bruce Lorich submitted these comments on coin dealer Bob Batchelder.
-Editor
Alan Weinberg wrote: "Crew-cutted Bob Batchelder of Ambler PA, who almost invariably had the best and highest quality material at each NY show, was the first bourse dealer any serious collector would approach. He wasn't cheap and his prices made you swallow hard, but he had the "stuff" and a pleasant personality to boot. He left numismatics abruptly decades ago - I never knew why - and made a name for himself in the rare autograph business still in Ambler, passing away around at 80 only perhaps two yrs ago." I found Alan Weinberg's review of the 1960s coin scene delightful. That was when I started out. Before I ever met Dave Bowers, who hired me to work for Bowers & Ruddy Galleries in 1974, I knew Robert Batchelder, because were both lived in suburban Philadelphia. I remember his constant ad in The Numismatist, listing all the coins he wished to purchase. I never could afford much of what he stocked when I was young but he was always a gentleman, even to a kid like me staring at jewels in his case at coin shows. Years later I visited him at his bank office (he bought a bank building in Ambler, PA) and he still had some wonderful British Soho Mint coppers, which I purchased. He probably owned them for decades but when he stopped dealing in coins he simply put them away. Weinberg mentioned that he never knew why Batchelder left the coin business. I think I can tell you why. Batchelder's wife was ill for many years, and her husband was a loving care giver. I believe he stopped doing coin shows, and went into the mail-order autographs business, so that he could always be near her. He was too much of a gentleman ever to explain his reasons to anyone. Robert Batchelder was one classy guy!
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ALAN V. WEINBERG ON THE HOBBY IN THE 1960S
(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n16a22.html)
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