GETTING FAMOUS IN COINS

Donn Pearlman is the History of Coin Promotions

- Donn Pearlman

My pastime and professional journeys have taken me to Brasher Doubloons, 1913 Liberty Head nickels, Rocky Balboa’s boxing trunks, John Wayne’s iconic eyepatch from “True Grit,” Series 1934 $100,000 Gold Certificates and the King of Siam proof set. It has been an overwhelmingly happy ride with the royalty of numismatics – both the legendary coins and the hobby’s acclaimed celebrities – combined with careers in broadcasting and then public relations

My first “brush” with coin collecting literally began with a brush. I was about seven or eight years old and used my mother’s nail polish and nail brush on a new Lincoln penny to create a bright, red cent. It was not the last time my weird sense of humor collided with my enjoyment of numismatics.

As with many collectors in the United States, I began searching for cents and Jefferson nickels to fill the slots in my blue Whitman albums. When the weekly allowance permitted, and later with funds obtained working as a young magician at children’s birthday parties, I purchased items at several of the then-many coin and stamp shops around my hometown Chicago area.

The best acquisition, though, was a face value purchase of a roll of Lincoln cents for 50 cents. A boyhood friend went on vacation to Philadelphia in 1960 and got each of us a roll of new cents from a bank in the city. Both rolls were 1960 Philadelphia Mint small date variety cents. I don’t know what he did with his coins, but in early 1964, during the “roll-mania” boom in the hobby, I sold that 50-cent roll for $400. That was a heck of a lot of money for a high school senior back then, who was making $1.10 an hour working part time at a local McDonald’s.