By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

John Hotchner is a writer, editor, researcher, and lecturer on stamps. He has served on numerous boards, including the American Philatelic Society, the United States Stamp Society, and the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors, and is currently a member of the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists. Hotchner collects stamps from 20 …

Lately I’ve been on kind of a David Singer binge. In case you don’t know, David Singer was one the most prolific San Francisco poster artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, creating 66 concert posters for rock promoter Bill Graham between 1969 and 1971.

[caption id=”attachment_9046″ align=”alignleft” width=”227″ caption=”This battered and beloved copy of a Fillmore West/Winterland postcard from 1970-1971 has been signed by David Singer in …

By Maribeth Keane and Joyce Millman (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Vintage banjo collector Lowell Levinger is perhaps best known to 1960s music fans as “Banana,” the bushy-haired guitarist and keyboards player for The Youngbloods. Today, Levinger is the proprietor of Players Vintage Instruments, where he buys and sells vintage guitars, mandolins, banjos, and other musical instruments. He also performs bluegrass and folk music for families under the name Grandpa …

By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Ken Sanders has been buying and selling books almost his entire life. A fan of illustrated books and books about the American West, Sanders is an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow, a publisher (dreamgarden.com), and a seller of rare and used books from his store in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is also well known for the role he played in …

By Ben Marks (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

A.C. Dwyer, an avid coin collector, talked with us recently about the history of U.S. $20 double eagle gold coins, especially those struck during the California Gold Rush. Dwyer discusses the types of double eagles that were minted, the most interesting and rarest varieties, and why he’s so enthralled with coins that have been found at shipwreck sites. Dwyer can be contacted via his …

By Maribeth Keane and George Spencer (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Tony Hyman has been collecting cigar boxes since he was 12. By his 17th birthday, he had amassed a collection of some 2,300 boxes. Recently, we spoke to Hyman about his online National Cigar Museum, which is a great resource for collectors looking to date U.S., Canadian, and Cuban cigar boxes. We also discussed the legendary self-igniting cigar and the history …

By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Tony Swicer is the president of the Palm Beach Coin Club, the vice president of Florida United Numismatists (FUN), and an avid collector of Kentucky bank notes. In this interview, he discusses the history of the regional banking system of the 19th and 20th centuries, the thrill of collecting his home-state notes, and the advantages of collecting currency over coins. Tony …

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis (Copyright 2009 The Collectors Weekly)

Jim Elyea co-runs History for Hire, a prop house in Hollywood, California, and has provided props for a variety of movies, television shows, and music videos. Recently, Jim spoke with us about the different types of props and the different eras that History for Hire covers, as well as the steps he takes to make sure an item or scene …

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis (Copyright 2009 The Collectors Weekly)

Scott Buckwald has been the prop master on a variety of popular movies and television programs, including Race to Witch Mountain and The Prestige. Recently, Buckwald spoke with us about his experiences as a prop master for AMC’s hit show Mad Men. He discussed what life was like in the early 1960s, when Mad Men takes place, and the lengths …

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I had the good fortune to speak with several curators from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. For a collectibles geek like myself, the experience was unparalleled, as I learned firsthand from the curators what they collect, why they collect, and what they hope to communicate to the floods of visitors who walk through their institution’s doors. In the coming months, …

By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Rudy Franchi knows movie posters inside and out. That’s because he’s more than a poster dealer, more than an Antiques Roadshow appraiser, more even than a respected author on the subject. Franchi is also a film buff, as his years running the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York City attest. In this wide-ranging interview, Franchi talks about how he got his …

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis (Copyright 2009)

Dolph Gotelli is a professor emeritus of design at the University of California, Davis. Gotelli is well known in the Christmas community for his elaborate exhibits and seasonal displays, which feature items from his collections of ephemera, Santa Clauses, and Christmas-related toys. Recently, we spoke with Gotelli about Christmas in the Victorian era, which is his specialty and chief passion. A member of …