Colin Gullberg, editor of Chopmark News, the newsletterof the Chopmark Collectors Club writes:

CG: What made you start to collect chopmarked coins?

EJ: It was when I saw Rose's exhibit at the ANA show in SanDiego in the early 1980s. It was so fascinating and so differentI just had to find out more about these coins. He had a beautifulexhibit and I had never seen anything like it before.

CG: Did you meet Frank Rose?

EJ: No, never. I wrote to him, this was before his book wasout, and he replied that his book, Chopmarks, was going tobe soon published. But that show was what started it all. But Idid most of my collecting in the late 80s before too muchinfor-mation was out. Rose hadn't even got his book out by then.So, I never met him but he did correspond with me.

EJ: Yes, it was a Bolivian 8 reales that a friend bought forme out of a junk box for $8. At that time that's what they were,junk box coins.

CG: They aren't $8 now.

EJ: No, at shows there just isn't as much available now likeit used to be.

CG: Why do you think that is?

EJ: I think they're in collections, locked up.

CG: You started the newsletter before the internetexisted.

EJ: Oh yeah. It was done on a typewriter. People today don'teven know what that is. I used my electric typewriter for thefirst few issues. I don't know when eBay and the internet startedbut I've been on eBay for ten years.

CG: How did you get all your information when there was nointernet?

EJ: Letters. I advertised in one of the coin papers and allthe people that responded were the early members. I had a goodresponse. The early group were quite responsive. Everything wasdone by mail. I did the layout and pictures myself.

For more information about the Chopmark Collectors Club, see:http://chopmarks.org