THE FRIEDBERGS' DEPARTMENT STORE COIN SHOPS

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 27, 2025, Article 13

Peter Tompa published a nice article on department store coin shops in Kate Fitz Gibbon's Cultural Property News, which covers national and international news affecting the art world, from in-depth research and reports on art and cultural policy to articles on museums, exhibits, the art market, media, education, technology, archeology, anthropology, and scientific discoveries.

We're publishing this excerpt with permission. You can subscribe to the free newsletter on the homepage at https://culturalpropertynews.org/ . -Editor

Art Friedberg grew up as part of perhaps the only family coin business operated out of major department stores. During college at George Washington University, he started working at his family's concession at Woodward and Lothrop in downtown Washington, DC. The operation sold a wide variety of US, foreign, and ancient coins as well as common ancient oil lamps and coins supplies not only at Woodies in Washington, DC, but through franchises at other major department stores around the country.

It all started with Art's dad, Robert. Robert's story is a bit unusual, but it broadly followed the trajectory of other self-starting American entrepreneurs of the early 20th century. Robert was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1912 to a family of Russian/Polish-Jewish immigrants. As a kid, he acquired his first foreign coins from sailors who visited his father's tailor shop located near the Harborside Terminal on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. While at college in New York City, he founded Capitol Coin Company, a mail order coin business, with his 16-year old brother, Jack. During World War II, he served in the US Army in Europe, where he was able to acquire more inventory for his growing business.

So how did coins join glassware, furniture, home appliances, clothing and shoes on department store shelves? Simply, selling coins was treated as selling other consumer goods, albeit as a specialized product that required the expertise of numismatists rather than typical department store employees. But it all only became a reality through Robert's business relationship with a well-known stamp dealer, Jacques Minkus, probably one of the first to bring collectibles, in the form of stamps, to department store counters.

Minkus was quite the promoter. Back in 1931, he had convinced Bernard Gimbel to allow him to open a small counter at the back of his flagship store at 33rd and Broadway to sell stamps. By the 1940s, Jacques had taken over much of the ground floor, and had expanded the operation to other department stores around the country.

Soon, Minkus decided to expand this empire further by promoting another popular collectible, coins. So, in 1947, he entered into a business relationship with Robert, who by that time had built up his own business. After a trial period, Robert ultimately agreed to pay Gimbels 20% gross on sales for use of its retail space, and also helped with the expansion to other stores. That business relationship took off with an expansion to 38 other department stores around the country.

Destiny also decreed that Capitol Coin would become a true family business as Robert also found love among collectibles. Soon after starting, he began a relationship with Minkus' assistant, Goldye Nessanbaum. Robert and Goldye got married in 1948, and soon had two sons, Ira and Art , who also ultimately joined the business along with Robert's brother, Jack.

Somehow Robert also found time to write and publish In addition to Capitol Coin Company, he formed the Coin and Currency Institute to publish books and sell coin supplies. His groundbreaking Gold Coins of the World was first published in 1958 and has been updated periodically since. Other books, including an important series on paper money, followed.

Robert knew relationships with other dealers were important to his own acceptance and success. As a result, Robert's firms became founding members of both the International Association of Professional Numismatists and the Professional Numismatists Guild. Art subsequently became the IAPN's President from 2001-2007.

Robert also knew that the key to the success of any franchise operation is a proper degree of control. For the franchise formula to work, coins purchased over the counter at stores nationwide were first sent to New York to be resorted before being distributed to other stores as needed. Capitol Coin Company also published price lists that could be overprinted with the name of the franchise stores. On occasion, rarities like the circulated 1894-S dime showed up for purchase over the counter. Such high priced coins tended to be resold outside normal channels because the typical department store buyer only purchased coins from $1 to $100 in value.