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In Memory of Tom Lacey 1956~2006
He assisted the late Walter Breen in his take-off of Johnny Carson’s “Carnac the Magnificent” act at A.N.A. Conventions. Tom had a great sense of humor with a great ironic twist. After Tom discovered that he had cancer in January, he decided to live his life as he had always lived it. That is with quality. He continued to do his coin shows, filled in as coach for a short time in a football camp run by one of his friends who is a New England Patriot. He played tennis with his friend Paul Turcott. Once a week, he went to lunch or dinner with me. We never discussed coins, but did bust each other’s chops, as was our habit, and we laughed a lot which was also our habit. Tom went on one last vacation with his wife, and best friend, Andrea. He went to his last show in Chicago. Tim and Andrea “Walked the Show,” bought stock, and had a great time. It was here that Tom’s energy ran out. He flew home to be with his family: his wife Andrea, his mother, Rita, father, Paul, and sister Anne, who all had worked at Tom’s shows, were with Tom when he passed away.
Even though Tom had been active in the coin business for over three decades, he was a young man. For several years, he promoted shows in Massachusetts including a half dozen “New England Coin Shows” in Mansfield, Massachusetts which drew dealers and collectors from all over the United States and Canada. Tom’s “Auburn” or “Greater Worcester Coin Show” was one of the most popular and well attended shows in New England. When Tom was discovered to have cancer in January of this year, he enacted a plan for the short time left to him. He sold his Auburn show to Ernie Botte. He told me that he had chosen Ernie to transfer his Auburn shows to because of the great professionalism Ernie had shown running regional shows and the Westford Coin Show. Tom, who had attended both Harvard and Suffolk University, had originally been setting up shows in the New Bedford Area in the late 1970s. He was later associated and the Pilgrim Stamp and Coin shop, then he bought out his partner and renamed the business Nightowl Coins. Tom moved his offices to Messenger Square in Plainsville, Massachusetts. He continued his auction business, which he began with Pilgrim Stamp and Coin in Foxboro, Massachusetts. In all, Tom held 342 coin auctions.
Along with his auction business, and shows, Tom kept shop hours on Tuesdays and Saturdays. These hours were spent not only with Tom’s and his customers’ love of all things numismatic, but lively discussions also took place on every topic. Sometimes visits to Tom’s shop were like seminars on the fine points of the coin collecting hobby and market. Some other topics were: travel, football, music, books, movies, history and historic personalities, philosophy of life, tennis, baseball, science, evolution, polities, and any other subject which could be discussed with reason and fun. Tom got on airplanes between 40 and 50 times a year to go to shows to seek out material to fill his clients’ needs and coins for his auctions and inventory. Most of the time he would make these trips with his wife, Andrea, or his dad Paul, or a pal like error-coin expert Mike Maino. Sometimes he traveled by himself, but one thing was for sure. He discovered all of the best flight deals to be had to almost anywhere, where the best restaurants and hotels were, as well as, theme parks, museums of special interest, miniature golf courses, zoos, or just about anything else exciting to him and his fun-loving and intellectual mind. He passed many an hour in discussion of aircraft with his friend Don Robinson, tennis and football with Paul Turcott, and history, philosophy, and politics with me. Tom mastered the art of disagreement without being disagreeable – at least most of the time. During the 27 or so years that I knew Tom, some of our discussions could be a little animated. It was intellectual spice rather than a verbal brawl. Tom was a life member of the American Numismatic Association and professional dealers organizations, both regional and national. He was a widely respected expert grader of coins. He specialized in both modern (1909-2006) United States coins and type coins (1793-2006). Tom had a special fondness for pattern coins. He also loved unusual numismatic material, and like Walter Breen, Tom had a special fondness for the scholarship of the hobby. Tom was very well read and wrote wonderful essays, which appeared in many of his auction catalogs. Most of these dealt with various aspects of the hobby, but many of the classics had to do with the antics of his cats, Fraser and Augustus, his travels, and mostly airport security. Walking around with hundreds of coins is bound to set off a few alarms, and after September 11, 2001, travel by air became a real pain in the neck for most of us at times. Tom, let us say, was sometimes put out by the intellectual level of the persons who worked in airport security. Once in awhile, Tom would buy a fossil or two for his auctions, or some odd and ancient artifact. At one point he bought a Mammoth tooth at a western coin show. He placed it in his carry-on luggage with his coins and other goods. When he arrived at the point where his coin loaded bag had to be searched, Tom requested a private place for the examination of the bag. He didn’t choose to show the world that he had a small fortune in his carry-on luggage. Out came the coins. Out came the gray sheets, and at last out came the mammoth tooth and other fossils. “What’s that?” asked the person in charge. “It’s a mammoth tooth,” replied Tom. “What’s a mammoth?” the somewhat less-than-sharp inspector asked. “It’s a large extinct elephant-like animal with a lot of hair that lived tens of thousands of years ago. It was much bigger than any elephants around today,” Tom explained. “How do it open?” “It doesn’t open it’s a tooth.” It’s gotta be some kind of bone.” “Yeah. O.K., you got me. It’s a bone.” The inspector smiled, “See? I kin tell when somebody’s pulling my leg.” Then she laughed, “Some big old dead hairy elephant tooth! Can’t fool me mister. You kin go now,” she laughed with a smile. “Yeh right Miss,” said Tom as he proceeded on with the fossils. There were a lot of stories like the one about his fundamentalist client who said that his auction catalog was wrong in describing some of his fossil trilobites (primitive three lobed animals of the early Paleozoic Period) as being 350,000,000 or considerably more years old. These were offered in several auctions over the years. They make good paperweights. Tom’s customer assured Tom that according to the Bible, that the world was created in 4004 B.C., and the trilobite could not be that old. Tom said, “You have a right to your opinions,” and just smiled. Tom was known as a practical joker. During one far away show, he once loaded Mike Maino’s rented car with balloons from floor to roof. Rumors of using crazy glue in some creep’s car locks I’m sure are just exaggerations. When he was in one of his earlier shops, Tom was the victim of a well known shoplifter. Nobody could prove it, but after many of this person’s visits, some coin of value would be missing. One day, only the two of us were in the shop when the well supposed shoplifter (of the respectable middle class type) entered. Tom had to go to the rear room of the store. He turned to me and said, “Keep your eye on things.” Believe me I did. The well-known Lacey auction boards were up with tens of thousands of dollars in coins mounted in flips on three by five inch cards. This person I watched well. In fact, I stood almost on top of him gasping at the beauty of every coin he examined during that ten minutes that Tom was in the back. The person in question turned to me and said, “Do you have to stand on top of me all while I’m in here?” Feeling well satisfied with his frustration, I said, “It’s a public auction. I get to stare at the stuff too.” When Tom came back, he noticed what I was doing, and he put his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. I backed off about two or three inches and continued until this person left the store. His face was a mask of fury. Tom and I laughed. “Sometimes you can come in handy,” Tom smiled. Tom’s essays, hundreds in number, would make a good book. His writing was crisp, informative, funny, and reflected his love of life. He had a zest for living and wanted to live out his allotted time with Andrea, his friends, and business doing just what he had always done. During one of our countless lunches during the last six months, he said to me, “You know what! Most people live long lives and never did anything they really wanted to do. I’ve lived 50 years, and I’ve done everything I ever wanted to do. I’ve had a great life.” “You still have,” I said. Then I added, “Hey Tom, you used the past tense again.” We both laughed at this, our private joke. Every time I slipped and had used the past tense of the verb “to be” in Tom’s regard, he would fake hurt and say, “I’m telling Andrea that you used the past tense with me again.” Sometimes he’d say something more cutting then laugh. He reminded me of a poem of Orrick Johns, Canto III of “Songs of Deliverance.” The lines I refer to are, I go not to deathAnd that was the choice Tom made. He lived, loved, worked, and died with integrity doing what he liked to do. He lived each day to its fullest enjoying the last taste of the rich red wine of life to its conclusion. In August, I shall be doing the following shows that Tom also did. On August 13, I’ll be at Ernie Botte’s Auburn Coin Show. To get there, take Exit 10 off the Massachusetts Turnpike and then proceed south on Rt. 12 about 1 1/2 miles to the new Elk’s Hall located on the left right next to the Hampton Inn hotel sign. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Sunday, August 27, I’ll be at Ernie Botte’s Westford Show at the Westford Regency Inn. Rt. 110 is located off Exit 32 off Rt. 495. Show hours are 9am to 3pm |
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