I've enjoyed Harvey Stack's stories about the coin business in New York. In his list of dealers active there during the 1930s he mentioned all those well known today, but he omitted one name that was prominent at the time and since forgotten.

When I was researching my book on coin boards, one of the publishers was Colonial Coin & Stamp Company of NYC. These were the Cadillacs of coin boards, with clear cellophane backings that showed both sides of the coins. The owner of CC&S Co. was Leiser W. Schnelling. While NYC directories of the years 1935-40 included all of the dealers mentioned by Harvey, the largest ads and the only ones featuring graphics in addition to text were those of Colonial.

Schnelling was evidently a big buyer and seller at the time, but he entered the Army in 1942 and seems to have been never again connected with the coin business. He died in 1981, completely forgotten by the hobby until my book resurrected his name. I wonder whether Harvey has any recollection of Schnelling or Colonial.

I'm attaching a couple photos that show the company's location at 505-507 Fifth Avenue in 1940, one block east of Stack's. Number 507 has a white arrow pointing to it, while 505 (to the right of it) has the company's name and logo painted in the second story windows. The blowup reveals the Colonial Coin & Stamp Company logo of the Statue of Liberty, which also appears on its coin boards.

Harvey writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:HARVEY STACK: HOW NEW YORK BECAME THE COIN CAPITAL(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n40a08.html)