GEORGE KOLBE RETIRES FROM BOOKSELLING

George Frederick Kolbe, numismatic bookseller and author, has announced his retirement fromthe partnership of Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers. The firm will continue to operateas Kolbe & Fanning under the ownership of David and Maria Fanning and will remain in theirGahanna, Ohio offices.

Kolbe began his career as a numismatic bookseller in May 1967 with the publication of his firstfixed price list, a three-page typewritten compilation sent from Redondo Beach, California, tono more than two dozen potential customers. Subsequent lists grew in sophistication both ofcontent and format, and in 1976 Kolbe (by now in Mission Viejo) held his first auction, a mail-bid sale of 763 lots. Three subsequent mail-bid sales were followed by Kolbe's first publicauction, held in conjunction with the 1979 Convention of International Numismatics in LosAngeles.

To date, George Kolbe has been associated with some 168 auctions conducted under his nameor (beginning in 2010) under the Kolbe & Fanning banner. Many of these sale cataloguesfunction as references within the field of numismatic literature. A listing of notable librariessold over the years would consist of too many names to include here, though the Harry W.Bass, John J. Ford, and Stack Family libraries require particular mention, as do the fifteen NewYork auctions conducted jointly with Douglas Saville of Spink. During his career, Kolbe alsopublished The Numismatic Bookseller, which variably functioned as a house organ, fixed pricelist, and mail-bid sale, and founded the Numismatic Bibliomania Society with his friend JackCollins. In 2012, Kolbe published a bibliography, The Reference Library of a NumismaticBookseller, based on his personal working library.

David Fanning writes,

Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers will be holding their next auction on February 17,2024, when they will be offering highlights from the extraordinary BCD Library on ancientnumismatics. The firm's website will remain at numislit.com.