Monday was a gorgeous day to be downtown, and I gave myself extra time to walk across the Loop from Union Station to my interview on North Michigan Avenue.
It had been a few months since I've done that — because winter — and maybe my bearings were a little off. Walking east on Washington, when I hit LaSalle Street, and saw this row of empty storefronts, pictured above, my first thought was a shocked, "Hey wait a minute? Harlan J. Berk went out of business? Nooooo!"
It had been a few months since I've done that — because winter — and maybe my bearings were a little off. Walking east on Washington, when I hit LaSalle Street, and saw this row of empty storefronts, pictured above, my first thought was a shocked, "Hey wait a minute? Harlan J. Berk went out of business? Nooooo!"
The store had been there for decades. I used to bring the boys there to buy coins. I'd always stop by and chat with Robert, who went to the same synagogue as my father-in-law....
The flash of dread lasted only for a few seconds. I did some quick orienteering. We were just south of the City Hall. I gazed over toward the Picasso. Wait a sec...
My step quickened. Soon this parallaxed into view. Not LaSalle Street. Clark. Whew. Still there. Given that little psychic contortion, I had to go in. You can't worry about the fate of someplace then skip past it. Beside, I had a little time to kill.
So I went in. Robert retired last month, lucky soul. I chatted with the clerk about gold prices. The bullion value of a double eagle — a $20 gold piece — is so great, nearly $5,000, that it's numismatic value, the price added to the value of the gold by it being a coin of a certain year and quality, has dwindled to almost nothing.
Though people do still collect coins, he said.
Looking for something to say, I asked if he ever got any cuneiform tablets in. Besides coins, Berk sells antiquities, Roman lamps and vases, kraters and Egyptian trinkets. I'm a writer, and have written about deciphering ancient languages. I always thought a pristine cuneiform tablet would look good on my desk, maybe displayed in some kind of cool brass stand, suspended by pincers. Look, early writing.
The next thing I knew I had been handed over to great man himself, Harlan Berk, 62 years in the business, and we were heading upstairs to his suite of offices, stuffed with all manner of statue shards and ancient detritus. I tried to beg off — look at the time, mustn't be late to my appointment. But I think he saw me as a fish on the hook, and he would not be deterred until the tablets he knew he had were dug out from the charming confusion of his offices, all cases and dusty volumes about coins. It took time. I tried to be patient.
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| And only $300 |
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| I was thinking of something more like this (Met) |
Just as well. A tablet of the quality I had in mind would be wildly expensive, all for another trinket to join the others, more stuff my kids don't want. I need to be getting rid of junk at this point, not acquiring more. I pushed on to my interview, but was very glad of my quick dip into the back rooms of Harlan Berk. That's the thing with the city; you set out to interview bagpipers — my appointment on Michigan Avenue — and end up eyeballing Sumerian tablets.
Not entirely true. I ended up, as I like to, after the interview, standing at the plaza just east of the Madison Street entrance to Union Station, enjoying a Rocky Patel Vintage 1990, watching the river flow and waiting for my train. A man was nearby, having a cigarette, and I considered saying something along the lines of "Nice day for it, eh?" But he seemed as if he were nursing a private sorrow, and I decided to leave well enough alone.
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| Harlan J. Berk |
Spouse collects coin and luckily we have a coin store about 6 miles away. Hope you bought a little something. I don't think the younger generations will be collecting coins much.
ReplyDeleteIn 1960, when I was 13 and he was in his fifties, my grandmother's youngest brother decided to do some traveling. He gave me all his change after he returned to the States...coins from every country in Europe, shekels from Israel, and even coins from the Soviet Union (he was born there, so even though he was Jewish, they let him in).
DeleteStill have them all, 65 years later, along with my father's 1889 silver dollars and my '64 JFK halves (90% silver, and highly collectible). My cousin was the only serious coin collector I ever knew as a kid. Never got the bug.
Wish I still had the Russian cigarette package I also received. The one with the image of Laika... the poor doomed dog who went into space...and died there.
The Madison Street entrance to Union Station is like going into the bowels of Hell. A ridiculously long stairway down into diesel smoke filled tunnel. I've talked several travelers out of using it who had large luggage & told them to walk down Clinton to Adams & enter there.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great store. Thanks for shining some light on it.
ReplyDeleteThe need to get rid of junk our chid (49 yeas of age) does not want comes and goes with me. Sometimes I just think what a good laugh I will have from the beyond watching him try to figure out if it is valuable or just junk! Your coin place sounds wonderful. Will have to send my husband there!
ReplyDeletecoin collecting , numismatics , was never very popular, say compared to sports cards or even comic books. as an investment it should be revisited and considered.
ReplyDeletewhen the melt value of a thing exceeds its collectors value it is often well , melted. though with us currency this is illegal. still, its done and fewer old coins remain. this drives up the collectors value due to scarcity.
I love Berks and went upstairs to buy an OWL. I especially like coins that feature animals and this ancient piece is particularly satisfying . Been collecting 60 years now. thinking about selling it all but too many boomers with the same idea is driving down the value. probably let my kids do it. they are completely disinterested. wonder if debit cards will be collectable one day
Thanks for writing about the shop. I’m glad to know about it. I have a friend who’d enjoy a gift from there.
ReplyDeleteI don’t understand why people worry so much about leaving belongings behind for their kids to deal with. When my mother died, in the same house she’d lived in for 85 years, she did have a lot of things accumulated. I lived 800 miles away and I didn’t see any reason to exile myself there for months picking through every last item. What was I going to do, build a shrine to her and my father in my apartment? I took what was meaningful to me, gave some things away, and sold what I easily could. The rest went into a dumpster. I was pretty brisk about it. But I’m grateful she could stay in her home until the last. As a friend observed, leaving would have been like moving to another country in her old age. And I would never have wanted her to get rid of things that meant a lot to her, things she’d had for decades and decades, things she saw every day of her life, just to make things a bit easier for me when she died. No need to make one’s home in a little box until there’s no other choice.
I’m looking forward to reading the interview with the bagpipers.
Sounds like it was pretty easy for you to do...you just dumped everything.
DeleteAs a dear, departed friend called the belongings that mean a lot to an individual...they are "the objects of much affection". Giving them up, all at once, is like being exiled to a space station. and making one's home in a sterile little box. That's called minimalism these days.
My wife and I are maximalists. Habitual collectors of the things that interest us, as well as terrible pack rats. The things that mean a lot, the dozen bookcases, the artwork, and "stuff" we've accumulated for decades. Objects we often use daily. Still making toast in our 1953 chromed Sunbeam.
Our two-bedroom bungalow is a museum of 20th century popular culture. And it's starting to bother me. Relatives don't care about what we have. They don't want Coke collectibles. Or books about streetcars, weather, baseball, Chicago, and WWII. Or all 38 original Nancy Drews. They probably think we're just crazy old Aunt Tifa and her goofy Jewish husband. Everything will be tossed.
I'm a minimalist. Probably some OCD. Clutter makes me very anxious. However, I love champagne and collect champagne flutes. Some of them are quite nice, and I notice my kids eyeing them. Perhaps they will toast me when I'm gone.
Delete"All be tossed" -- there's the reason to edit your "stuff" before you die. Send the collectibles, the rare stuff, the well-made stuff, to someone who will appreciate them. A friend of ours died, and we tried to make sure his relatives realized that his model stash was actually valuable, and point them to the Internat'l Plastic Modelers Society, where people would fall upon it with cries of joy, and give her money.
DeleteIt's a real shame when irreplaceable items get junked just because they're not recognized in the mass of Everything Else.
Grizz….I have two little granddaughters who read Nancy Drew…are those books for sale?
DeleteA heads-up: They are, as I mentioned, the originals. The so-called "Blue Nancys"...with the blue spines, from 1930-1959. Not the crappy yellow reissues, with re-edited text. All the original racism and sexism, which some politically correct folks don't want their offspring to experience. That kind of ethnic cleansing does not sit well with me.
DeleteSome are first editions, and some are reprints. Some are on crumbling "war paper" from the Forties, and some are later volumes. Some in very good shape, with dust jackets. Some, not so much. Don't want to break up the set...want to sell all 38 to a buyer. Complete sets sell on eBay for a few hundred bucks. You can look them up.
Last week my husband and I went to the Art Institute. We roamed around the ancient Greek artifacts, when the Greek coins caught my interest. Little thick objects of beauty. Monday I thought about those coins and wondered if it’s possible to own one. I decided I need a new hobby to explore to keep me off of the dreaded news. After googling around a whole world of collecting was opened to me! I read about this store for quality dealers to buy from, having never heard of it before. Reading a comment on your post I knew exactly what an OWL was. Amazing coincidence.
ReplyDeleteA man living his passion. Does not get better than that. Make that two men living their passion.
ReplyDeleteThe place I miss is the train store, formally known as All-Nation Model & Coin Shop, located at 220 West Madison Street.
ReplyDeleteWe'd get off at the Northwestern Station two blocks away and ogle all of the beautiful model trains.
They had other hobbies, such as coins, model ships, and model airplanes.
A child's dreamland.
They lasted until 1978 - a victim of urban renewal.
1978? Hell, no...they lasted decades longer than that. Became Downtown Hobby and moved to one of those underground passageways that people used as shortcuts. Near Madison and Dearborn, I think. Or maybe Monroe. Have decades of calendars that I bought from them...about '75 through '05.
DeleteThey remained in the Loop for a while longer, and then in the late 80s they relocated to a much bigger location on Northwest Hwy. Stayed there for another 35 years. Became known as Chicagoland Hobby. They were a gem.
I'm an electric railroading junkie (streetcars, subways, trains) and I used to go there even after I moved out of Chicago. Every visit, Chicagoland Hobby was a must. Got all kinds of stuff there...mostly books and magazines. My last time there was in August of '23...they were having a huge sale, because they were closing for good a month later.
The usual sad story: Owners retired...and the kids and grandkids wanted no part of a retail operation. They lasted 52 years. Sorry you didn't get the memo. Places like that have melted away like an ice cream cone in July.
Grizz, it feels strange to write “I took what was meaningful to me, gave some things away, and sold what I easily could. The rest went into a dumpster” and have that understood to mean I "just dumped everything.”
DeleteMaybe your kids could look into having an estate sale, though it feels strange to write that, too. I certainly hope you’ll be around a lot longer.
Apologies for sloppy proofing. Should have read "almost everything." But maybe that wasn't true, either. What was kept, given away, and sold may have been the bulk of her things. I'm always lecturing people to never assume. Which I did and shouldn't have. I wasn't there.
DeleteWe did the same thing when our neighbor died, a decade ago Kept some of her things, sold a few, donated most of the furniture to Habitat for Humanity, and recycled a great deal. The rest went into a big dumpster on the driveway. The realtor and the lawyers thanked us. Saved them a lot in clean-out fees.
Somebody will have to have an estate sale. Maybe my wife's nephews. We have some treasures, i'm sure. Collectors will either rub their hands together with glee or laugh at what goofballs we were. Maybe both. Kids? What kids? Had an abusive father, so knew by the age of ten that I would never willingly have any. The buck stopped here.
Cuneiform translations tend to be disappointing. There is a little museum in Berrien Springs Michigan with quite a few tablets. I eagerly put my sister in front of the exhibit to translate (she has a PhD in linguistics from Harvard with a specialty in IndoEuropean.) Every one of these tablets is a bill of sale. Nothing interesting like a letter or diary.
DeleteWhen my PhD linguist sister translated the cuneiform tablets in St Andrew’s museum, she told the proprietors that all of them were upside down.
ReplyDelete