Has anyone ever been to Williams Gallery in Bozeman, Montana?
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
I was taking a look through the latest issue of The Numismatist, and I noticed a full page ad in the first few pages. I have seen advertisements for Williams Gallery in previous issues of the magazine, but this ad was different. It showed a picture of the coin dealer's retail store, and quite frankly, I was amazed and a little shocked.
In a typical coin shop on the East Coast (around the NYC area), simply put, the coin stores are not asthetically pleasing. They are typically dingy, dirty, and tinderboxes of piles of paper, old Grey Sheets, and miscellanous used McDonald's cheeseburger wrappers.
But Williams Gallery seemed different. The facade appeared to have clean windows. There were actually fresh cut flowers in the display windows, and the customer was greeted with a warm and inviting burled walnut door upon entering the store. It seemed like a classy joint, and seems to be the type of look that more coin dealers should try to copy.
Honestly, I have never been to Bozeman, Montana, and I am sure it is a nice place. However, a quick check of the Tiffany's site shows there are no Tiffany stores there, and had I lived in Bozeman, I would not be able to pick up a bauble for Mrs. L on my way home from work. Similarly, I assume there are no 5 star hotels downtown, and the city does not have avenue after avenue of plastic surgeons who can give a quick Botox injection or two before you go out on the Saturday evening, which is a requirement in my neck of the woods. However, from what I hear, regardless, it seems to be a pretty nice place.
Has anyone ever been to Williams Gallery (or to Bozeman for that matter)?
In a typical coin shop on the East Coast (around the NYC area), simply put, the coin stores are not asthetically pleasing. They are typically dingy, dirty, and tinderboxes of piles of paper, old Grey Sheets, and miscellanous used McDonald's cheeseburger wrappers.
But Williams Gallery seemed different. The facade appeared to have clean windows. There were actually fresh cut flowers in the display windows, and the customer was greeted with a warm and inviting burled walnut door upon entering the store. It seemed like a classy joint, and seems to be the type of look that more coin dealers should try to copy.
Honestly, I have never been to Bozeman, Montana, and I am sure it is a nice place. However, a quick check of the Tiffany's site shows there are no Tiffany stores there, and had I lived in Bozeman, I would not be able to pick up a bauble for Mrs. L on my way home from work. Similarly, I assume there are no 5 star hotels downtown, and the city does not have avenue after avenue of plastic surgeons who can give a quick Botox injection or two before you go out on the Saturday evening, which is a requirement in my neck of the woods. However, from what I hear, regardless, it seems to be a pretty nice place.
Has anyone ever been to Williams Gallery (or to Bozeman for that matter)?
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
0
Comments
<< <i>I assume thats the same Dale Williams who used to be a grader for PCGS. He sells on eBay as CollectorUSA and and is probably one of the few reliable raw coin sellers on eBay. >>
Correct on all counts. I can count the number of eBay sellers I'd confidently buy raw coins from on one hand, and Dale is one of them.
Never been to Williams Gallery, though.
Dale has been on page five of "The Numismatist" for as long as I can remember.
I've known Dale for over 30 years. A great eye. He built a magnificent type set of commemoratives for me back in the 70s. He is an Ohio boy. He started out in Dayton, Ohio then moved to California and then to Boseman, Montana. I still have a few of his coins in his old flips.
I was kidding him at CSNS because I used to buy his raw 64 Morgans and then send them off to PCGS and they would upgrade to 65.
A great guy and I'm glad to see him mentioned in the forum.
<< <i>Bozeman ranks right up there as one of my favorite places in the world (behind Cody, Wy). Been there a few times, but it's been a while. Beautiful area with plenty of elbow room.
Never been to Williams Gallery, though. >>
I lived there in the mid 80's. It was a peaceful college town and everyone was down-home friendly. We re-visited in 2004 and saw a marked change ... lots of BMW's and Mercedes, fewer pickup trucks. Folks were not as friendly. I don't recall a "Williams Gallery". I looked at the storefront on their web-page. Could you imagine those windows (without bars) in a big city setting? They wouldn't last a day.
The mega-ski resort for the rich and famous isn't to far away from Bozeman - if memory serves - and they just declared bankruptcy.
Bozeman has some of the best fly-fishing in the world. "A River Runs Through It" was filmed nearby.....
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Been to Bozeman during a yellowstone trip but not to the store. Nice place.
They better be careful with (and dial down) their "investing" rhetoric on their site lest they cross paths with the SEC.
Hellofva night as I recall, camped in the tall cottonwood trees and
had a tremendous lightning storm that shortened a few of them.
We made haste to the car. Did not sleep much that night. Oh,
yeah, I remember Bozeman, Montana.
bob
Mightyhunter
All of Montana is the last best place on earth. People who live there don't want to leave, and people who don't live there, want to.
<< <i>Bozeman is a state college town (Missoula, MT being the other "key" stage college town; Billings/Great Falls are the 2-biggest cities in MT). Ted Turner owns 100,000 acres nearby.
The mega-ski resort for the rich and famous isn't to far away from Bozeman - if memory serves - and they just declared bankruptcy.
Bozeman has some of the best fly-fishing in the world. "A River Runs Through It" was filmed nearby..... >>
Actually, a river runs through it took place in Missoula (my hometown) on the Blackfoot river.
This is an old post, BUT I was wondering if anybody knows how Dale is doing?
Not the same place it was in 2009. But, yes, wondering if the shop is still there. So many storefronts are long gone.
Internet website is still up.
But have found in the past that is not necessarily a reliable indicator that a place still operates.
I bot over 100 raw Morgans on EBAY from 2003 - 2007 and maybe 20 were from collectorusa. They were the best and most reliable seller I dealt with for my $ range of coins. Never got a cleaned coin and coins were exactly as described as pictured. If Dale had it listed as uncirculated, it was UNC. Always looked at their store first for coins.
I saw Dale a couple months ago. He is a regular at our shop when he visits family In Dayton.
Cincinnati is a quick drive down I75. Anyone else in the area stop by and say hello.
Brad, Coins Plus
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.