Retired Central Illinois dealer Gary Dayton has passed away
Weiss
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Gary rented his first shop space in the front of my mom's art studio in the late 1970s. It was a dream come true to a very young numismatist. His shop, Specialty Stamp & Coin, was a fixture in our town for nearly 40 years (where I was lucky enough to shop and remain that same 8-year old staring at coins and smudging the display cases) before his retirement in 2014.
Many of my current and previous Box of 20 pieces (pictured) came from Gary. All purchased at a very good price, several raw (the '14 saint, the Charlotte gold) based on Gary's recommendation, and most which were subsequently CAC'd, attesting to his knowledge of coins and old school grading skills.
http://www.news-gazette.com/obituaries/2018-05-13/gary-dayton.html
We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame
--Severian the Lame
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Comments
Nice memories of Gary! May he rest in peace.... I really love that 1921!
Hey comrade w, so Gary was the owner of the local B&M you frequent and speak of so much?
Btw, I drool over that 1914 Double every time I see it.
RIP
He was until he retired about 4 years ago.
--Severian the Lame
Great OP about a quality dealer, Weiss. Nobody is replacing the old timers.
What town was this shop in?
RIP
Condolences to family and friends. RickO
Gary was in downtown Champaign, IL for many years. He typically did the Champaign-Urbana coin club annual show. I never did much business with him. I cannot get the News-Gazette to pull up an obituary that is more than a few days old.
Sorry to hear about that.
Did he have any affiliation with the Gold Nugget in Champaign? That was the only coin shop I knew about when I went to college there in 09-13. Only went a couple times, as a student coins were not a priority.
Collector, occasional seller
No, Gary had a separate place about two blocks away from the Gold Nugget. He was there forever, but it was very low profile. The shop was in a little paved alley or cul-de-sac and wasn't visible from the street. He sold the place to someone else and retired about four or five years ago.
Gary had actually been in 4 locations in Champaign: The first, 30+ years back, was in the middle of downtown literally a block away from his final location. FWIW the space was shared with my best friend's mom, too: Louise Krauss (mother to Alison Krauss and my friend Viktor Krauss). The second space was on the corner of Springfield & State. His third location was on 1st Street in a one story house that had been converted to commercial space. The final space was in the tiny storefront @BillDugan1959 referenced. While literally only a couple of hundred square feet in front, the space also housed the substantial safe deposit system of the bank which used to occupy the whole building. Those deposit boxes are, if I understand correctly, one of the only privately available non-bank owned insured deposit boxes in the state. A very shrewd move on Gary's part: By having safe deposit boxes available, he realized a steady stream of income which offset the cost of the store space. But more important, he had a literal captive audience when it came time to buy a collection. Simply access your pieces and plop them on the counter. The ultimate in discreet accumulation. You could buy it, store it, sell it over many years without anything ever leaving this tiny, nondescript location.
--Severian the Lame