How did you get into this business?

As a kid, I collected all kinds of things: match covers, stamps, coins, trading cards, buttons. I collected all kinds of things.

After finishing four years of college and one year of law school, which I hated, I took a job in the coin department at Kaufman's in Pittsburgh. The coin store was a leased space run by the Friedbergs, who owned the Coin and Currency Institute which ran leased departments in department stores across the country.

Then I had an opportunity to take over their store in Washington, D.C. at Woodward and Lowthrop. I was single then and jumped at the opportunity. That was 1963.

When the Friedbergs closed down that department in 1979, I took over the Friedbergs' inventory on consignment and set of on my own, establishing Capitol Coin & Stamp on Connecticut and L Street.

I've been collecting and helping other collectors ever since!