Family of B. Max MEHL and Ethyl ROSEN

Chicago - January 8, 1933. Listeners to radio station WMAQ hear a

program brought to them by B. Max Mehl, proprietor of the largest

numismatic establishment in America. The same day, twenty million

readers of Hearst newspapers open their Sunday issues to find a

full-page, fourcolor advertisement about rare coins - again from "that

coin man" from Fort Worth, Texas. Who was this man who brought old and

rare coins to the attention of the nation?

A numismatist he wasn't. In the world of scholarly research absorbed

with die varieties, mintage figures, and the study of archival data,

B. Max Mehl had no place. It can be said, however, that his

contribution to the hobby was as great as any of his contemporaries,

and with a career that spanned fifty years, that included a good many

people.

B. Max Mehl was probably the greatest promoter of coins who ever

lived. During the early 1930s, Mehl's response to the deep economic

depression that gripped the country was an avalanche of national

advertising that captivated the imagination of millions. In his

heyday, he spent an average of $100,000 per year on advertising.

(Remember that a new car cost around $600 and a three-figure coin was

a major rarity.) From the Saturday Evening Post to the airwaves on

more than fifty of the nation's leading Mutual Broadcasting stations,

Mehl bombarded Americans with information about the potential fortunes

they might already have, and provided them with their first exposure

to the world of rare coins.

B. Max Mehl was born in Lithuania in 1884. At the age of nine he

immigrated to America and a year later began collecting cigar bands,

stamps, and coins. In 1903 Mehl joined the fledgling ANA as member No.

522. (He would later be awarded an honorary membership.) His first

publication, the Hub Coin Book, appeared in 1904, and by 1906, Mehl

had begun what would soon be the largest numismatic establishment in

the world.

From his headquarters in Fort Worth came a flood of mail-bid auctions,

a monthly numismatic magazine, the Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia, and

some of the most spectacular public auction catalogs ever issued.

Numerous flyers and pamphlets kept both established and potential

customers interested and involved in the numismatic market. Mehl's

major auctions included the Ten Eyck Sale (1922), The Dunham Sale

(1941), as well as the holdings of Grinnell, Atwater, King Farouk of

Egypt, C.W. Green, and many others. The Mehl Numismatic Monthly

enjoyed an eleven-year run from 1908 through 1919 and contained

numismatic articles, news events, and of course, listings from Mehl's

extensive inventory. While the Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia was hardly

a fountainhead of numismatic information, it was both available and

inexpensive, and it helped further the course of numismatic awareness

and knowledge throughout the first third of the century.

Mehl's career reached a peak in the '30s and early '40s. His

advertising was pervasive within the numismatic arena and far-reaching

outside of it. Many of his advertisements, in fact, were devoted to

boasting of his extensive budget and imaginative marketing. His

purchase of the Waldo Newcomer Collection in the early '30s for the

incredible sum of $250,000 provided an inventory second to none, and

Mehl spent more than a decade dispersing the riches from this

acquisition.

Since his death in 1957, Mehl's contribution to the hobby has

sometimes been criticized as having been too "commercial." His epitaph

as the "P.T. Barnum of the coin business" implies a dual impact on the

field, and his detractors often cite weakness in research and a less

than total adherence to probity in his business dealings. While Mehl

was certainly no paragon of virtue, it seems unlikely that he was

fundamentally unscrupulous. He was in the business for more than fifty

years and dealt with a great many people - inevitably, some were less

than totally satisfied.

We remember B. Max Mehl today for his accomplishments. He awakened

millions of Americans to the history and potential profit of rare

coins, and for that we must thank him.