By CoinWeek Staff Reports …..
Longtime coin dealer John B. Love passed away on December 19, 2023, at his home in Whitefish, Montana. He was 87 years old. Love was a noted specialist in Morgan silver dollars and operated Record Coin Shop in the city of Cut Bank.
Love, along with fellow Morgan dollar specialist Wayne Miller, is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the modern silver dollar market. The two were partners for a short time in the early 2000s.
John Love was born on June 6, 1936, in Carbondale, Illinois, to Virgil and Florence Bracy Love. Bracy was also John’s middle name.
He attended the University of Montana on a football scholarship as a young man, playing one year before switching to tennis. Love graduated in 1959 but already had his sights set on becoming a full-time coin dealer.
In 1962, he opened his business.
When the Redfield Hoard of Morgan dollars came to market, John was one of its three major distributors. He handled Morgan dollars by the bag, by the roll, and by the coin. Love was a mentor to PCGS and NGC coin grader Michael “Miles” Standish and is listed as a contributor to Standish’s book Morgan Dollars: America’s Love Affair with a Legendary Coin [Coin Analyst Louis Golino reviewed the book for us back in 2014. —CoinWeek]
John Love was a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) and a Life Member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA). He was the 1990 recipient of the National Silver Dollar Roundtable’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, PCGS inducted Love into its Coin Dealer Hall of Fame.
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