Edward Hammond hasn’t always been a coin dealer. But he is now. Life can take you to unexpected places.
I'm a 10th generation Lower Eastern Shoreman, my family having lived in Northampton, Somerset, and eventually Worcester Counties. After a childhood in which I really did catch bullfrogs, go sailing, hunt ducks, and ride with the dog in the back of the truck, I went to college in Richmond and then moved to Texas, where have I lived much of my adult life. About 10 years ago, I started dividing time between Austin and the Eastern Shore.
Like many folks, I collected coins as a kid. The highlights of my collection were a common date Morgan dollar (a gift from one of my father’s friends) and a 1920 mercury dime, the latter because I found it on a beach with a $8.99 Radio Shack metal detector and proved the old guys wrong.
From my late teens through my 30s, I worried about more pressing things, like girls, beer, and a career. Well, sometimes beer came first. About fifteen years ago I became interested in coins again, but was disappointed to discover that my father had given away my childhood collection!
My collecting days seemed like they were over, but then a Tennessee cousin passed away and I was surprised to inherit a large collection of US type coins. It included rarities like 1797 and 1878-S half dollars and, strangely, what was probably the largest hoard of 1879 three cent nickels on the planet.
I realized that I had to hit the books just to properly understand it all. So I studied and cataloged for several years, sharpening my grading skills and building knowledge of the major US series. In 2016, I began working coin shows in and around Texas. That business, The Broken Cabinet, remains a going concern. You’ll see the Broken Cabinet, mostly in the winter months, at coin venues from Texas to Virginia.
After searching for a suitable location for a coin shop for several years, in 2024 I pulled the trigger on a turn of the century commercial building in Snow Hill, Maryland. The Lower Shore Coin Exchange was born.
I still dabble in my former line of work - policy wonk papers and treaty negotiations on agriculture, health, and the environment - but am trying to spend more time with coins. They cause a lot less heartburn.
I am a lifetime member of the Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina Numismatic Associations as well as the Seated Liberty Collectors Club, National Token Collectors Association, and Maryland Token and Medal Society. Personally, I collect Seated Liberty coinage and Southern trade tokens, particularly pre-1900 Texas saloon and pictorial tokens, Southern antebellum and Reconstruction era tokens, and 19th Century Baltimore.