Numismatic Coin Club World Internet Numismatic Society
NEWSLETTER - LIBRARY ARCHIVE
HOME | NEWSLETTER | LIBRARY


**** WINS Member Bio ****


- Walt Southward -

I started collecting coins as an early teen-ager in my native Pittsburgh, Pa. When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I would make a few dollars each summer picking blackberries and selling them door-to-door. I ran across a lady who wanted two pints of blackberries, which sold for 70 cents, but she only had 60 cents, a dime and a half, both from 1828. I didn't know coins from blackberries, but I assumed that coins that were 120 years old must be worth something more than face value. So I took the deal, and then took the coins to a coin shop in Downtown Pittsburgh, where I found they were worth about a buck each. I kept the coins, but was enthralled by the other coins and books and coin folders I saw. I was hooked!

My coin collecting habits followed me through Army service in Korea, college at Marshall University, where I majored in journalism and minored in speech. And a reporting career that included stints in Huntington West Virginia, Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii. Memories of those collecting days in Hawaii stand out. I would get bags of parking meter cents from the bank, by weight, and keep them next to my desk, to go through and put in rolls when I had some free time or when I was in a long-winded telephone conversation. This was in the early 60's and I found a lot of early S-mint cents as well as some Indian head cents.

And then the guy who handled the circulation for The Honolulu Advertiser, for which I was the Big Island Bureau chief, offered to allow me to look through his coins every Wednesday. That was the day he cleaned out his racks (today, they have do it every day) and I could take all I wanted at face value. It was mostly dimes, because that was what the paper cost in those days. Reporters weren't paid very much then, and I could only afford a few dollars each Wednesday, but I cherry-picked Mercury dimes and even found a few Barber dimes to add to my collection.

We founded the Big Island Coin Club in 1964. I served as charter president, and used to have lunch every week or so with Whitey Takahata, who was the vice president. One day, when it was his turn to buy, he told me that he'd forgotten his wallet, and asked me to pick up the lunch tab. No big thing, I thought, and my generosity was rewarded when I got an extra fine 1931-S cent in change with him looking on. Since serving as charter president of the club, I filled such roles as newsletter editor, auction chairman, corresponding secretary, door prize chairman, program chairman and as a member of the club's board of directors.

In 1970, I left the newspaper world for corporate public relations, and in 1977 opened my own public relations firm in Hilo. My coin collecting continued, and my public relations efforts allowed me to pursue coin purchases in places like Dallas, Tucson, Santa Barbara and San Francisco as well as regular appearances at the Hawaii State Numismatic Association show in Honolulu. I also managed to find time to be president of the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, the Waiakea Lions Club and the University of Hawaii at Hilo Athletic Boosters. In 1998, I was inducted into the UHH Athletic Hall of Fame.

In March, 1997, my business career came to a screeching halt when I suffered a brain stem stroke while watching a university basketball game in Hilo. The stroke left me wheelchair bound, with partial paralysis of my right arm and right leg. That, in turn, led to a decision to divest my coin collection. Over the years, I had completed sets of Indian and Lincoln cents, V-nickels, Buffaloes and Jeffersons, Mercuries and Roosevelts, Washington quarters and Franklin halves. I had a gold type set, a type set of US coins, crowns from more than 250 countries and a Mercury set that was complete and about 75 percent uncirculated, as well as more than 4,000 world coins. There was also a lot of Hawaiian coins and medals in the collection. I also had been buying five proof sets and five mint sets every year since the early 70's.

Leilani and I have no children, and she and I agreed that it would be unfair to her to leave to her the job of divesting my coin collection. So I began the slow, but thorough, job of divesting my collection. My colleagues in the Big Island Coin Club, dealers from the islands and the Mainland, wholesalers and more recently, the members of WINS, have all participated in my divestment efforts. I only wish WINS existed 8 years ago, and I had been an active member, when my divestment program began. I have a bunch left, including some exomania and world currency, but in due time, all of it will be gone.

I still have a lot of interest in numismatics, and have gained much from some of the learned members of WINS and from the photos that they have displayed. I have long been a member of the American Numismatic Association (LM 1052) and am scheduled to get a 40-year member award next year. In 1992, I received the ANA's "Outstanding Club Representative" award, and last year I received the ANA Presidential Award from President Gary Lewis.




TOP OF PAGE

Information contained on this page is posted for WINS Club Members use,
All Rights Reserved. If you have any comments or problems with this or
any other Club Site page, please contact the: Webmaster
.
Copyright © 2005 All Rights Reserved Legal Notices