Now old enough to be as vintage as the items they peddle, Brigandi began as an antique coin vendor in 1959. Since moving to their current location in '82, they've expanded to include autographed items and other memorabilia. Coins still rule the day: dating from the late 1700s onward. I, actually, found a silver dollar from 1799, one of the first ever minted, being sold for roughly $6,000. I marveled at the $20 pieces and the late eighteenth century half pennies. Foreign coins, from Chinese to Seychellois to Danish and beyond add a bit of exoticism. There are signed sport posters and Green Bay Packers signed footballs from their 1960s Superbowls. Hanging on the walls were old college pennants paying homage to the alumni clubs lined up on 44th Street. There were many signed baseballs, but the one that Chris Brigandi, the grandson of the original owner, pulled out from the vault, impressed me most. It was signed by both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and had a price tag of $40,000. I also learned a bit of history from Chris when I noticed the collection of baseball cards. In the early 1900s, cards were sold in packs of tobacco or cigarettes, thus called "tobacco cards." It was not until the 1930s that baseball cards were inserted into packs of gum. If I had not been speechless before, I certainly was when Chris brought out a signed check by Joe Jackson dated 1919 with a price tag of $100,000. He explained that Shoeless Joe had been illiterate so the only way he could sign his name was by someone showing him a "pattern" that he could copy. There is no doubt that collectors of every age will be fascinated by the selection of archives gathered under this one roof.
