Every now and then in life, you meet people who are large souls. Al Hoch was one of those. No person in numismatics did so much for the hobby while shunning any recognition. I have very fond memories of him, a few of which I will share.

In 1990, I approached him to publish a book I was writing. I dearly wanted the Quarterman QP logo on the spine, as that would give the book more credibility than if it were just privately published. Al agreed, but said that it would be to my advantage to pay the printing/binding bill and receive the entire print run rather than sending it to the warehouse for his distribution. As we were using one of his regular printers, the contract came with Quarterman's credit terms - payment 45 days after delivery. By the time the bill came due, the project was already in the black costing me nothing out of pocket. Other than two working dinners at Legal Seafood in Cambridge, he refused to take any compensation.

The Quarterman imprint has always stood for quality. Al used a 200-300 dpi screen when reprinting most plates at a time others settled for 100. His reprint of the Maris Woodburytype plate, which he did for me in 1987 using what he called the �fancy process,� is so deceptive, that when it and an original were shown to a New Jersey specialist side by side, and he was asked to select which was which, he picked the wrong one as the original. In a rare show of satisfaction with his own work, Al asked me to mark the reprints �copy� on the reverse.

While Al had published several volumes under his own name for TAMS, and with Ted Craige the first reprint of Dalton & Hamer (incorrectly referred to as the Seaby reprint; all they did was slap their own dust jacket on it), he opened Quarterman in 1972 reprinting needed works in the token, medal and early coppers fields. But they weren't just straight reprints with most adding extra value.

His edition of American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals included a photo supplement of medals from the collection of Leonard Finn, Al shooting the photos on Finn's kitchen table. Today, his reprint of Betts often sells for more than the unillustrated 1894 original.

New forewords, supplements and corrections marked almost every one of his productions. Changes in Penny Whimsy are subtle, as he and Sheldon made corrections in the text which were typeset in matching font on strips of paper and pasted over the old text on the repro master making a true 1st revised edition. Early Coins of America contains a 28 page foreword by Eric Newman, and A Historic Sketch of the Coins of News Jersey has one of 4 pages by Walter Breen. And his monumental reprint Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland brought that unwieldy 18 fascicule elephant into a single, if weighty, volume. It should go without saying that a library of Quarterman titles has more research value than a library of the originals from which they were made.

For years Al avoided major coin conventions and he preferred to meet in Nashua (NH) at a mall show where I had a table twice a year. There, he once sold me a Bank of New York Fugio for $700 for which I paid cash that he stuffed into the pocket of London Fog raincoat. The Fugio was partly red and I asked him if he wanted to see photos of 1794 cents in the same condition printed as �cibachromes� This of course was the special edition of the John Adams catalogue published by Bowers & Ruddy in 1982 as a fixed price list.

Al gazed at the coins on the plates for a minute, then rolled his eyes and said. �Charlie, I have been in psycho-analysis for 20 years, but this is the meaning of life.� He then got up and started to walk out, oblivious to the fact that $100 bills that I had just given him were falling out of his pocket and were spewing over the mall floor. I retrieved them for him, but I think the Adams large cents had put him in a temporary trance.

The 1960 ANA convention in Boston was a happening, perhaps not recognizable as such at the time, but as the years go by, it is defining itself with an extraordinary assemblage of minds. The banquet photograph depicts a group in the center of the room at a table set for 10 with 5 younger numismatists with their wives or dates - Q. David Bowers, Ken Bressett, George Fuld, Dick Johnson and Ken Rendell. 50 years later each of these has reached the pinnacle of success in cataloguing, publishing and research.

If there had been another seat at the table, Al Hoch would surely have belonged in their company (or would they have belonged in his?). As Al lived most of his numismatic life in Boston's suburbs, I asked him why he was not to be seen in the photo. His answer was that with a growing family, he could not justify $5 for the banquet ticket and he and Walter Breen went out for hot dogs instead.

In 1992, I convinced him to go to the A.N.A. Convention in Orlando and participate in the numismatic symposium with John Adams, Dave Bowers and Eric Newman. Not known to him was that N.B.S. had planned a special achievement award to be presented at the club's general meeting. I had the honor of making the presentation from the podium, and as he came forward to receive the plaque, the 100 or so attendees jumped into a standing ovation as if they were sitting on ejector seats and I had pushed a button. I remember the first person up was Michael Hodder, and half a second later the whole hall was up too. The recognition was more than Al could deal with, and he changed his plane reservation home and left the next morning, not wishing to spend any more time in the limelight.

These and other stories are obviously personal and I will hold their memory close. For those not lucky enough to have known him, I would ask you to reflect occasionally when you take a Quarterman title off the shelf or read an issue of his brain child Colonial Newsletter, how fortunate we are to have had Al Hoch in our world. He really did make a difference, and we will miss him.

Pete Smith writes:

George Fitzgerald writes:

Rich Hartzog writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:NUMISMATIC PUBLISHER AL HOCH, 1935-2010(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n48a02.html)