Coins to Currency

It was at one of the local Omaha “club shows” in 1992 where I met currency collector / dealer John DeMaris from Boystown, NE.  There was never a lot of currency in dealer showcases at these smaller shows but I noticed how John would always make a point of going to each dealer and asking them if they had any paper money. This really interested me. So quietly, even kind of unknowingly, I started spending more time with John as he started to show me different U.S. currency types. I was completely new to paper money. He taught me the fundamentals like how to handle banknotes and how to grade paper money.  John was, and still is, an exceptionally good grader of paper money. I really hung on every word he said and tried to learn as much as I could.

With multiple interests now it soon became apparent that something had to give for me. I really enjoyed both coins and currency but one of them had to go. I simply did not have enough time (hours in the day) or the money to be dealing in both coins and currency. So I started to make the transition to paper money. It didn’t happen overnight, but, over the next 3-4 years I found myself dealing more and more with U.S. banknotes and less and less with U.S. coins.