Who are the other 2 people on Home Run Hall's book cover?
Zoins
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I've always been curious about who's on the cover of David's book.
Also, anyone know the story of how he picked up the moniker "Home Run Hall"? Did he play Little League or Babe Ruth? Was he great at cherry picking "home run" coins?
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Van Simmons?
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
And the 3rd is BJ Searls!
Home Run Hall <==> HRH <==> His Royal Highness
I posted this recently in a different thread. The other two are indeed Van Simmons and BJ Searls.
Wow, that's awesome @CoinJunkie !
Thanks. Yeah, I always found that cover highly amusing and decided to take the book to Long Beach to get it autographed. Took a couple of trips to get all three autographs.
Sweet !!!
Nice book cover, and not one I have in my library...will watch for it. Cheers, RickO
Interesting - I didn't place those names with those faces before.
Has anyone here read the book?? Is it worth reading??
I was working for David Hall, back then and even got to help edit the book. It was a very fun time!
While I can't say that I remember it well, I do recall that it was a good read.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
With the caveats that the book was published in 1987 and I read it many years ago, I will say that overall I found it very informative and entertaining. It is written from the perspective of making money (or losing less) in coins. The bulk of the 400+ pages is devoted to chapters on the various US coin series and the issues (and grades) therein that should be focused on to maximize returns. The book starts off with a chapter on ten Numismatic Facts of Life, and other nuggets of Hall's wisdom and philosophy are sprinkled throughout the text.
Since this book was written at the exact time that PCGS was starting up, there is a lot of informed speculation about which issues in various series are the rarest in higher grades. With the benefit now of almost 35 years of PCGS population data, I'm tempted to compare the speculation in the book with the actual data.
Bottom line: Although certain aspects of the book are dated, it is still a worthwhile read for collectors/investors at all levels.
I remember when the book first came out I drove down to his office and picked up a copy. I think his business card had a $10 Indian head gold piece embossed on it. Van Simmons is still with him. They sat together at a Pogue lot viewing
Epic individuals no matter how you view their individual lives. Thanks BJ for all your time with us . . . and I respect what Mr. Hall and Mr. Simmons have done even for myself . . . . at the lesser end of the pool.
Drunner
That book was my bible when I got back into coins in 1986 after college at Texas State, marriage, and grad school (UH). I still have it in my numismatic library. It is one of the great numismatic works of our time another is Investing and Trading Commems (Classic) by Harry Laibstain. I still refer to Harry’s book to this day,
I remember taking David Halls Book with me to the Greater Houston show looking for slabs MS64 and above (DH book) and bought some from Kenny at US Coins.
When I started setting up at shows in 1990 I was a frequent visitor to US Coins table and Ken Ferguson (world gold dealer, a really great guy).
Way cool
Looking at numismatics and all that is incorporated within that and even including when the book was published, seems there were better choices for a cover. No apologies for writing what I think.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
BJ is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I miss her not being at PCGS anymore.
If I recall correctly, BJ Searls was with World Wide Coin Investments prior to working with David Hall. WWCI had many prolific Coin World ads in the 1980's. David Hall was with Joel Rettew in the mid-1970s. I think Van Simmons was there as well. That was quite a prolific team on the West Coast....giving Jim Halperin's East Coast group a run for their money. Though in the end, more movers and shakers in the 1980's to 1990's coin markets came out of Halperin's NERCG (1972-1983). After Halperin teamed up with Steve Ivy in 1983, NERCG's went down the drain until the FTC landed all over them. I was subscriber to David Hall's Inside View during the 1983-1984 period as the coin market was picking up steam from the 1980-1982 crash. For that time period, Inside View and Maurice Rosen's Market View monthly newsletters were the best out there.
The other rare coin newsletter I really liked was the one written by Phil Schuyler of Ellesmere Numismatics.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
The Book sounds like a good read. I just bought one on Ebay. Looking forward to getting it.
And today David Hall came out and
said you must buy the coin and not the holder AND you must know how to grade. Otherwise you get
yourself a dealer you can trust and knows how to grade.
It doesn’t matter what the grade
on the paper insert says
It has always been this way....even in the early days of the TPGs in 1986-1990. Coins were being cracked out left and right since about 15-35% came back too low. And maybe 5-10% came back too high. It made for nice arbitrage on the bourse floor and at a coin shops. If you didn't know how to grade, you could easily undersell some great coins that were being very tightly graded. If you really want to know the true grade of your coin at any point in time you need the same grade verified multiple times. Which means 2 to 3 submissions minimum. Still, the eventual buyer may not agree.
HRH and I both carry the AUG.