On the 3rd flooring of an unassuming downtown company construction wedged between a denture care middle and a consulting company is a gold mine of political memorabilia.
Capitol Coin, which opened in 1979, buys and sells creditors pieces, like uniqueness cash, silver and gold, uncommon signed pictures, vintage expenses and political memorabilia, like posters, buttons and presidential pens used to signal expenses. Nelson Whitman, the landlord of the shop because it opened, mentioned the store is very similar to different D.C. establishments, like museums, because of its robust presence and preservation of political historical past — however right here, it’s interested by sale.
“People come in and see it all and I say, ‘Well, it’s all for sale,’” Whitman mentioned. “A museum, but it’s not to look at, you can buy anything in here.”
Every inch of the shoebox retailer is filled with relics of America’s political, cultural and financial previous. Glass circumstances gleam with cash relationship again to the primary century B.C., binders brimming with presidential marketing campaign buttons for everybody from William McKinley to Donald Trump teeter on packed cabinets, a wall of outsized pre-1929 greenback expenses towers over guests and signed pictures of political icons sit down in frames lining the partitions. Whitman strikes with a realizing ease in the course of the store, after having moved with it round D.C. seven instances and having been within the present location since remaining yr, his tall body bent rather to tending to the treasures he’s spent a life-time gathering. Whitman mentioned he appreciates that even because the years move on, younger clientele nonetheless waft into the shop.
“There’ll always be people coming in to buy stuff,” he mentioned. “I mean, I get a lot of younger people coming in to buy.”
Whitman mentioned he assets the vast majority of his stock from consumers who discuss with the shop taking a look to promote non-public mementos, some handed down from circle of relatives, others given through the government as items and souvenirs of quite a lot of administrations. He mentioned some consumers are available with extraordinarily precious pieces, however maximum are promoting “pretty common stuff,” which he is taking however regularly provides away to youngsters for varsity tasks reasonably than reselling.
“Mainly people who don’t have any interest in collecting would rather have the money than have stuff sitting there and not doing anything,” Whitman mentioned.
Whitman mentioned the shop has modified location seven instances prior to now 45 years. He mentioned when there have been different assortment retail outlets nonetheless in life within the Nineteen Seventies, he’d collaborate with them through sending consumers backward and forward to other sellers to seek out the object they sought after. He mentioned he believes Capitol Coin has persisted as a result of his honesty and endurance with consumers has garnered their admire.
“If you’re honest with people, they’ll respect you,” Whitman mentioned.
Whitman mentioned his love of amassing ordinary pieces got here from his early life when he amassed “everything,” however particularly cash.
“I always had a love for collecting,” he mentioned.
Whitman mentioned rising up, all of his buddies amassed, they usually’d business cash with each and every different. He mentioned his mother would give him a weekly allowance, and he used it basically to shop for cash to fill his assortment.
He mentioned despite the fact that he’s cherished gathering his entire existence, he made up our minds to make it his existence’s paintings after a yr at Duquesne University Kline School of Law satisfied him the criminal box wasn’t for him.
“Studying all the law books just didn’t have any meaning for me,” Whitman mentioned. “That was a turning point for me.”
He mentioned he took a task operating within the now-defunct Woodward & Lothrop division retailer in Pittsburgh and moved to D.C. in 1963 after being presented the danger to run the coin division on the retailer. When the dept went underneath in 1979, Whitman used the revel in promoting cash to create Capitol Coin.
Whitman mentioned that when he opened the shop and began gathering for industry, he stopped including to his non-public assortment as a result of he could be too tempted to “collect all the good stuff” that comes into the shop.
“It’s hard to really fall in love with something if you have it up to sell,” Whitman mentioned.
Whitman mentioned his favourite factor within the retailer is a photo marking the tenth anniversary of the autumn of the Berlin Wall — signed through the previous Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev. He mentioned somebody who knew Gorbachev introduced the {photograph} into the shop to promote sooner than returning to Russia.
“Autograph stuff is important to me because I enjoy that type of merchandise,” Whitman mentioned. “I’ve got autographs from presidents and so on, which I kind of have more respect for than just regular stuff because it’s one of a kind.”
Whitman mentioned political occasions like elections and the inauguration regularly force further hobby in pieces comparable to these occurrences.
“Every four years there’s more interest in campaign stuff than every two years when there’s congressional campaigns,” he mentioned.
Case in level, a suite of Trump-Vance inauguration invites in Whitman’s retailer already bought this week, in keeping with his website online. The pins that also line his partitions come with the entirety from a button mentioning that Hillary Clinton would flip Georgia blue in 2016 to a $675 button for Teddy Roosevelt’s 1904 marketing campaign. Nearby are a gold paper weight with Richard Nixon’s face on it, a letter from William Howard Taft about cartridge shells and a crammed animal of Joe Biden’s snappy canine, Commander.
Several D.C. luminaries have stopped through his retailer through the years, together with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who shopped round with a pack of Secret Service brokers to shop for a stamp guide for her daughter, and Johnny Cash, who got here in taking a look to spend money on silver and left with a 100-ounce bar.
Whitman mentioned he has a “photographic memory” of costs, permitting him to simply appraise pieces. But if he’s not sure of an merchandise’s price, he mentioned he consults books that record the present costs for pieces like cash. He mentioned his experience comes from a long time of revel in.
“I’ve been doing this for 65 years, you get to know what prices are,” Whitman mentioned.
Whitman mentioned he refuses to promote pieces for other people to spend money on and resell for benefit, who prefer to promote only for the enjoyment of “the old hobby.”
“If people come and say ‘what should I buy to invest in?,’ I say, ‘I don’t sell anything to invest, you like it, you buy it to collect it,’” Whitman mentioned.
At 88 years previous, Whitman mentioned his circle of relatives has been pushing him to retire, however he’s made up our minds to stick within the gathering recreation for so long as conceivable — he mentioned it’s what assists in keeping him feeling younger.
“If I retire, I can’t sit at home and watch TV. I’ll die in a week,” Whitman mentioned.
