Faces of Culpeper- Pete Magee
By Hilary Lewis
As vice president of the Culpeper Coin Club, Pete Magee loves collecting valuable coins. He's been practicing this hobby for over 50 years and recently retired from a career running a jewelry store in Manassas. Magee started the coin club when he moved to Culpeper four years ago. Today, the club meets the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. at 108 W. Cameron Street. The club's annual coin show will be held this Saturday, April 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Best Western Inn on Madison Road.Tell us more about the Culpeper Coin Club-
"I started the club at the library, and held a meeting with eight people who showed up. I waited six months after that and came up to see Thom O'Connell, our treasurer, and he and I formed the club. We meet every month and usually have a speaker or a small auction. On the payroll now, we have about 30 members. Currently, we are donating proceeds of a project we have to the Culpeper Senior Center."
Tell us more about the coin show this weekend-
"Well, it is on May 3, at Best Western here in Culpeper, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The public is invited, of course, especially those who are interested in buying or selling coins. We have people there who will buy your old coins. In fact, they will buy your old gold or silver. I happen to be one of them and Thom O'Connell, is one of them. Prices of gold and silver sometimes makes it lucrative to get scraps or pieces you don't use, things like that. There will be 20 to 30 dealers there, each will have one or more tables, with their coins and other numismatic inventory available. Admission is completely free. This will be our second year. Last year, I thought we did real well, although it was on graduation day and that didn't help. This year, it's in May and it's on Culpeper Day, so we'll see how that works out."
What does it take to be a true numismatist?
"First of all it takes an interest in history and especially, what history has to do with coins. You can still get a good coin collection out of circulation, by that I mean the new state quarters, which revived the coin collecting business considerably when that started in 1999. All 51 state quarters will be completed within the next year. So you can collect them all, one from Philadelphia and one from Denver, this year. You can find all of them in circulation and you don't have to buy them."
How did you get into collecting coins?
"In 1949, I was working in a bank and an old lady came in and cashed in 20 five-dollar gold pieces. As a bank teller, I gave her $100 for them and immediately bought them because I knew I had a cousin who would buy them from me. He did. He paid me $8 a piece for them, so I made $3 a piece for them. In 1949, that was 60 bucks, which was about five times the salary I was making for a week. About 50 years later, he was living in Florida, and he mailed me one of those original 20 gold pieces and I still have it. That started me. I developed an interest right then and have been collecting since then."
Come out and see the American Numismatic Association's Coins of the Olympic Games exhibit at the Culpeper Coin Show, along with a raffle for a 2008 Bald Eagle three-coin proof set. For more information on the show, call 829-1050.