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Mom and Pop Coin Shops

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Hey, guys, what do I have to do to clean the code, font, and formatting out of some text I want to paste into this window?

I have something saved in Word as unformatted text, but it still needs stripping.

Anyone got a clue for me?

Thanks in advance!

Tom</FONT>
I never pay too much for my tokens...but every now and then I may buy them too soon.

Proud (but humbled) "You Suck" Designee, February 2010.

Comments

  • mrpotatoheaddmrpotatoheadd Posts: 7,576 ✭✭
    Just a guess, but could you maybe open the file with notepad or wordpad and strip out the non-text stuff?
  • DaltonistaDaltonista Posts: 354 ✭✭

    Started Lawrence Block's latest Keller novel, "Hit and Run," last night. Keller's the
    philatelist/hit man who has an interesting way of mixing up bloody mayhem with his
    stamp collecting.
    Thought some of you might enjoy this colloquy on page 2 as much as I did (italics
    mine):
    "Years ago, when Keller's boyhood stamp collection rarely set him back more than a
    dollar or two a week, there would have been plenty of dealers in Des Moines, as there
    were just about everywhere. The hobby was as strong as ever these days, but the
    street-level retail stamp shop was on the endangered species list, and conservation was
    unlikely to save it. The business nowadays was all online or mail order, and the few
    dealers who still operated stores did so more to attract potential sellers than buyers.
    People with no knowledge of or interest in stamps would pass their shop every day, and
    when Uncle Fred died and there was a collection to sell, they'd know where to bring it."
    I found this interesting on two levels. First of all, his nostalgic look back in time pretty
    much matched my experiences growing up on Long Island, where every village had a
    coin shop or two to feed my darkside habit. For even more excitement, this was back
    when Yeoman was the only world catalog generally available, meaning only "type
    collecting" was supported by the dealers, who knew nothing from dates of world coins.

    This was also back when, as I did, one could get a nicely-preserved proof Gothic Crown
    in trade for five Morgan dollars, which themselves could be cherry-picked for date and
    grade over the counter at any bank, since they circulated widely then, even on my
    newspaper route. Or when I could acquire, and did, a gemmy 1894 Canadian half dollar
    in an even-up trade for a gemmy Barber half of roughly the same vintage.

    In any case, I could make the rounds of a dozen Mom & Pop coin shops on any Saturday, all well within easy Schwinn range of home. For really extravagant or exotic buys (like
    Conders), I usually had to pester one of my parents into taking me to the Macy's or
    Gimbel's department store, and dragging my Dad to a coin show was like dying and
    going to heaven! (It wasn't until a few years later that I discovered girls.)
    I guess the second point of interest for me is really a question for my colleagues here:
    Is Keller's thesis true about bricks and mortar shops these days? I know some of our
    fellow forum members actually sell coins for a living. For those of you who have retail
    stores, is buying there really the purpose… more than selling?
    Maybe others here on the forum will be inspired to share their old-timey stories of coin
    collecting too?

    Best to all ~
    Tom
    I never pay too much for my tokens...but every now and then I may buy them too soon.

    Proud (but humbled) "You Suck" Designee, February 2010.
  • DaltonistaDaltonista Posts: 354 ✭✭
    Thanks, Mr. P., for that Notepad tip!

    Had to remember to save the .doc into .txt.
    THEN it worked like a charm!

    Tom
    I never pay too much for my tokens...but every now and then I may buy them too soon.

    Proud (but humbled) "You Suck" Designee, February 2010.
  • DBSTrader2DBSTrader2 Posts: 3,444 ✭✭✭✭
    They're Lightside memories, but..............

    I remember going with my grandparents down to the industrial section off Center City Philadelphia to where all the metal smelters were, & going thru coffee cans full of silver dimes & quarters looking for dates to fill my Whitman folders. If only I knew then what I know now, I would have gone after halves & dollars and bought a lot more, instead of 4x face being too rich for my blood at the time.................. this was back in the late 60's, and I was only a kid.

    There were also many more mom-and-pop coin stores in the area & at the local "Bazaar" back then than there are today. Nowadays, I head over to the local coin show once a month if I'm free, look at all the high-end silver & gold being sold & lack of "junk boxes", and leave depressed.

    I used to be able to search bank rolls and come up with a few interesting finds (1876 IHC, silver dimes/quarters/halves) , and cash-out some silver and silver certificates/red-seal notes, etc from the tills at the stores I managed later on................ but nothing these days in change...........

    Even the coins at tables at local flea markets are way overpriced and too little else to look at or search thru...

    Such a shame for the small-time collector... never again will there be the opportunity to collect/buy silver out of circulation. Even war nickels are almost non-existent, let alone buffalos, wheats, IHC's, Mercury's, etc........ now all we have to collect are weakly-struck, "clad" coins featuring "compromise" designs that lack any vision or beauty like the IHC, Buffalo, Morgans, Walking Libertys, etc, ............

    Thank goodness for countries like Canada and now Great Britain, whose coins often lead the way in cutting-edge designs & vision!

    - - Daveimage
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