From time to time the subject of department store coin franchises has come up in The E-Sylum, with readers supplying their fond recollections. In the course of scanning old coin album ads for my next book, I came across these two ads from COINage Magazine in 1965-66. The first lists various department stores around the country that had coin departments, and these were presumably the Friedberg franchises.

The second ad encourages entrepreneurs to avail themselves of a Midas Coin Center franchise. All one had to do was select a location, and Midas would supply everything needed to start a coin shop, including the coins. I can't think of a worse time for someone to open a coin shop than the post-1964 coin market depression that lasted for several years. There must have been shops closing all over the country!