Post your favorite Aubrey and Adeline Bebee story

CoinHusker

After reading QDB's article in The Numismatist about his first ANA Show which happened to be in Omaha in 1955 , and his interactions with the Bebee's, (as well as other stories I've heard about them from other collectors/dealers), I was saddened that I missed out on having the chance to meet these fascinating people from my home town.

Being the editor of the Nebraska Numismatic Association Journal and the Omaha Coin Club newsletter I thought collectors here might enjoy reading how this Omaha couple, the Bebee's, touched different peoples lives in different ways in different parts of the country in this hobby of ours.

If you have a story to share, or even pictures, please post them here.

Thanks!

TwoSides2aCoin

1804 Dollar is a good story



Coins and the history of the mint always seem to produce great stories.

Halfsense

I met Aubrey and Adeline at my first ANA convention in 1977 in Atlanta. He heard I lived in Skokie, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and introduced himself, explaining that when he and Adeline lived in Chicago (before moving to Omaha) they would drive almost every Sunday from their home in the Southside's Hyde Park area to Skokie to have dinner at the Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant. That's a distance of about 20 miles each way. (The restaurant has been gone for over two decades, replaced by condos.)

I would cordially meet with him at various ANA and perhaps Central State conventions, and in the early 1980's I helped arrange the display of his 1913 Liberty Head nickel at the opening of a coin and stamp department at a suburban Chicago area Sears store. (The department was owned by the nice folks at Jake's Marketplace in Chicago.) I was there when the armoured truck delivery arrived, and eagerly watched as the large, custom-made Capitol Plastic holder containing the coin was carefully removed from its packaging and placed in an exhibit case. Aubrey did not charge anything for the display of the coin. The only cost was for the transportation and insurance. He was happy to have it exhibited so people could see it. That's the kind of genial, well-meaning people Aubrey and Adeline were. They later donated the nickel, their extensive paper money collection and other items to the ANA Money Museum.

-donn-
Donn Pearlman
Las Vegas, NV
Member, ANA Board of Governors, 1989 - 1993 (with scars to prove it)

Tvac897

Thanks for the report, it was informative

CoinHusker