Q. David Bowers, Hard Times Tokens, and the Art of Numismatic Writing
by Dennis Tucker, Whitman Publishing

If you're alongtime coin collector, as I am, you've probably read quite a few works by Q. David Bowers. After all, he's been writing in the field of numismaticssince the 1950s, he published his first book (Coins and Collectors) in 1964, his list of titles has surpassed four dozen, and his articles andcolumns number in the thousands. Yes, the thousands. Dave's scope ranges from American colonial coins to modern-day Proofs, from ten-cent tokens toten-million-dollar rarities.

On top of that his prose is featured in various parts of the Guide Book of United States Coins (the hobby's best-selling "Red Book," withmore than 23 million copies in print since 1946). So if you've been collecting coins, tokens, medals, or paper money for more than a year or two andyou've never read a word of Bowers, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're rarer than an 1804 dollar! The bad news is you're missingout on a full and complete hobby experience. Fortunately the solution is never far away, thanks to your local bookstore, the library, and theInternet.

I spoke with Mr. Q. David Bowers for the first time soon after I joined Whitman Publishing in December 2004. I was in the company's Atlantaheadquarters and Dave was in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where he does most of his writing. At the time he was already Whitman's numismatic director. Ihad grown up, numismatically speaking, reading Bowers books and articles, so it was quite an honor for this recently minted numismatic publisher tobe speaking with a legend as a colleague. "Call me Dave," he said. "Everybody does. If you insist on calling me 'Mr. Bowers' I'll call you 'Mr.Tucker'!"

Dave and I have talked or emailed nearly every day since that first phone call. Over these ten years we've worked on books ranging from 96-pagemonographs to 900-page encyclopedias. His productivity is amazing. One of the most frequent questions I hear from collectors is, "How does DaveBowers write so many books?" The process is remarkable to observe.

First of all, you need to know that he's been writing for more than 50 years. Perhaps writing isn't the best word; it's too constrictive, toonarrow. Producing? Creating? What Dave does is multi-faceted and immersive, more long-range than the simple physical act of sitting down at a deskand putting pen to paper (to use an old-fashioned expression).

The bedrock of his system is the Bowers archives. Long before the Internet, Dave was compiling a personal library and research center of books,newspapers, magazine clippings and snippets, and other resources-anything and everything numismatic. He read and studied decades' worth of oldperiodicals the likes of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, and made note of everything relating to American coins, tokens, paper money,general and specific economic conditions, the intricacies of day-to-day bank operations, interesting financial-sector goings-on, Mint procedures,Treasury gossip, and more. (Again, this exercise was before Google searches, online book archives, and other modern conveniences. It has developed,or least strengthened, what I suspect is a photographic memory combined with instant recall.)

Starting in the mid-1950s Dave began interviewing key figures in numismatics-B. Max Mehl, Abe Kosoff, Stephen Nagy, Robert Botsford, U.S. Mintdirectors from Rae Biester to date, and hundreds more, gaining knowledge that would have otherwise been lost forever. As technology has advanced, sohas the Bowers research machine. Historical images that he earlier had to clip, photograph, or photocopy can now be scanned and saved digitally inhigh resolution. Instead of having to travel to faraway museums and archives, email and the Internet put him in a hundred places at once, withinstant communications.

This brings up another important factor in how Dave Bowers works: collaboration. "To have a friend, you must be a friend," as the proverb goes.Over a career spanning decades, Dave Bowers has built a reputation as a researcher who generously shares information instead of jealously guardingit. His network has grown strong from this. Today, when a numismatist gets an email or phone call saying, "This is Dave. I'm working on a new bookabout [fill in the blank], and was wondering if you have any images, die varieties, new research, or other information to share?" the answer isnearly always an enthusiastic "Yes!" He knows all of the museum curators, all of the Treasury and Mint officers, all of the historians, thecollectors, the dealers, the auctioneers, researchers, archivists, and aficionados who make numismatics a vibrant and living American science. Hegoes out of his way to share his knowledge with them when they need help. In return they share their own specialized insight-and Dave absorbs andsynthesizes it as only he can, to bring to his readers.

Another element of the Bowers method is a constant and never-resting spirit of inquiry that spans genres, disciplines, and fields. Dave is ascurious a student of current Presidential dollars as he is of Massachusetts colonial silver and pre-Federal Reserve bank notes. He wrote a book ongold dollars minted from 1849 to 1889. He wrote another on State quarters that your kids can collect from pocket change today. Not to mention amassive study of pre-1916 American motion pictures . . . the definitive reference on automatic and coin-operated music machines . . . a monumentalhistory of the California Gold Rush . . . an illustrated monograph on Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha. . . . an exploration of the American bisonin popular culture. His subjects run up and down the Dewey Decimal system. The breadth and depth of Dave's intellectual curiosity and study bring tomind President John F. Kennedy's famous quote at a 1962 gathering of Nobel Prize winners: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection oftalent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dinedalone."

Add to these elements a genuinely engaging writing style; the ability to connect with and satisfy readers; a scientist's ability to rigorouslytest theories and fearlessly question conventional wisdom; a technician's grasp of information design and user interface; and an artist's knack ofseeing the whole before the parts are assembled.

All of these moving parts came together in the Guide Book of Hard Times Tokens, which will debut at the Whitman Baltimore Expo in March2015. The foundation of Dave's manuscript was the research he'd been gathering for many years: biographies of die engravers, histories of issuingfirms, narratives about the political personalities involved; plus his observations on the market and collector activities, from several decades'perspective; and images gathered over the course of his career.

He called upon friends and colleagues in the field: Steve Hayden volunteered his database of more than 18,000 public auction records and advisedon retail pricing and rarity ratings; Evelyn Mishkin and others read early drafts to pick out typos and offer feedback; various collectors anddealers offered photographs to supplement Dave's voluminous personal archive; historians at the American Numismatic Association, the AmericanNumismatic Society, and other organizations pitched in as needed. At Whitman Publishing our design team planned the book's look and feel, and oureditorial staff worked with Dave to fine-tune the manuscript and marshal its million details. Over the course of several months this huge project wasgiven its legs to stand on, and it took off running. As the Guide Book of Hard Times Tokens was under way, Dave was also actively working onmanuscripts about obsolete paper money, Civil War tokens, 19th-century advertising shell cards, and several other topics. "I like to work on projectsin parallel," he always tells me. When he gets bored with one he'll turn to another, which somehow charges his batteries so he can return to thefirst refreshed. A normal person would simply get tired, but the inimitable QDB is actually energized by work.

So there are some of my behind-the-scenes perspectives on the Dean of American Numismatics. When ambitious young writers ask me, "How can I becomethe next Q. David Bowers?" the answer is simple. All it takes is an insatiable curiosity about the world, a steel-trap mind, the ability to connect ahundred different disciplines logically and with panache, a vast network of friendly collaborators whose respect hasn't been bought or beguiled butearned, an untiring work ethic, and 50 years of experience. Start early. The encouraging news is that if you accomplish even one-half of Bowers'soutput, you'll have earned a secure place in the numismatic history books.

Dennis Tucker
Publisher, Whitman Publishing, LLC
Atlanta, Georgia