By Allison C. Meier — "One More Opportunity Knocks at Your Door,” declared an advertisement in the November 9, 1916, issue of the "Oklahoma City Times." The tantalizing notice shared column space with sales pitches for hair tonics and headache cures and offered its own remedy for one of life’s mortal problems. The ad copy guaranteed that this business venture was fail-safe, with shares of stocks ready to be purchased. The demand for this wondrous new product would only increase, as there would always be new...

An Interview with Smithsonian Coin and Currency Curator Richard Doty

By Maribeth Keane and Ben Marks — When I was 8 years old I had a friend named Jimmy Hood. His father was in the army, and he had been on the staff with General MacArthur when MacArthur was effectively the boss of Japan right after World War II. Jimmy had some Japanese and Chinese coins, so we swapped a few things, as kids will do. And at that point, in 1950, I just got hooked on coins. I also had some paper currency when I was a kid, thanks to a friend who had been in the Flying Tigers. He brought back some Indian rupees...

Tony Swicer Explains How He Started Collecting Kentucky Bank Notes

By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway — I started collecting when I was about 10 years old. My father was in the Air Force, so he got me started collecting everything—coins, stamps, military insignias, baseball cards, all kinds of stuff. I settled on coins, maybe because they’re worth the most money. I don’t know why particularly, but I just did. I collected coins from probably 1959 to the late ’70s when I sold my collection. I collected dollar-size metals for 10 years, and I sold that collection in about 1990. Then I...

Taking Stock of Scripophily

By Maribeth Keane — I got interested in stock certificates by happenstance, really. I collected stamps at one point, and sold my collection to put a down payment on the house. I tried to get back into stamp collecting by going to an auction a year or two later, and ended up not buying any stamps. But at the end of the auction, I bought some stocks just because I hadn’t bought anything. I found them interesting and started picking up more and more pieces, and the next thing I knew I was collecting pretty...