GOULD, WALTER B.

Copyright 2011-2018 John N. Lupia, III

Fig. 1. Walter B. Gould (1848-1932), at age 73, A.N.A Convention photo 1921. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library.

Walter B. Gould (1848-1932), was born at East Corinth, Penobscot County, Maine, on February 29, 1848, son of Robinson Gould (1820-1872), a butcher at Bangor, Maine, and Elizabeth J. Huse Gould (1818-1904).

Walter B. Gould was a merchant lifelong and in retirement became a coin and stamp dealer. He is best known for his pioneering research on counterstamped Large Cents from 1914 to 1921.

In 1871, he was married Nellie A. Gould (1847-), a native of Maine. They had a son named Edgar W. Gould (1874-1921). In 1871 he was a confectionary dealer with the firm of Messrs. Boyd at Bangor, Maine.

In 1872, he opened a confectionary store Walter B. Gould & Co., Bangor, Maine.

In 1880, he was a fruit dealer who also sold tobacco.

Fig. 2. Walter B. Gould & Co., Agent for Wm. S. Kimball & Co., a tobacco company popular in the 19th century for its trading cards with foreign coins. There are only a dozen of these very rare Kimball & Co. coin cards in the Lupia Numismatic Library. Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, August 13, 1881, page 1

Figs. 3 & 4. Roman Gold Aureus of Julius Flavius Vespasianus on front of Kimball & Co., Cigarette trade card circa 1888. There are 72 cards in the complete series each with coin illustrated on front and checklist on the back. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library.

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Fig. 5. Walter B. Gould & Co., trade card Big Bass Cigars, circa 1875-1880.

Fig. 6. Walter B. Gould & Co., moved to 2 Harlow Street, Bangor, Maine. Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Wednesday, November 3, 1888, page 2

Fig. 7. Walter B. Gould & Co., trade card circa 1888 with new address 2 Harlow Street, Bangor, Maine.

In 1889 he attended the Centennial Celebration in New York.

In 1892 he moved his tobacco store from Harlow Street to Exchange Street, Bangor, Maine.

In May 1893 Gould went to Chicago on business and attended the World's Fair.

In July 1898 he went to San Francisco, California on business.

Fig. 8. Walter B. Gould's U. S. Copper Cents collection 1793 - 1856 numbered 20,000 specimens and was stored in a 6 peck sized glass jar. The news report was published throughout the country the entire year with dates of the oldest Cent ranging from 1703 to 1796 from reporters who were obviously not collectors. Omaha Daily Bee, Tuesday, January 1, 1907, page 10

Fig. 9. Walter B. Gould Circular Seal circa 1900. In 1900 he was a cigar manufacturer. Vignette design of Quaker-looking hatted robust man bust portrait profile facing right - Legend above : Walter B. Gould/ Bangor/ Central : Feb 29/1848/ Below : Maine/ Penobscot County. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library.

On October 21, 1908, he married Rebecca F. Moody (1843-), of Everett, Massachusetts, at Bangor, Maine.

In the U. S. Census 1910 he was a widower living in Aroostook, Presque Isle, Maine with his brother Arthur Gould and sister-in-law Mary Frances Gould. He was a lumberman who owned a sawmill.

In 1911, he married his third wife Mertie E. Hartley (1869-), of Maynard, Massachusetts, daughter of James L. Phillips and Frances L. Littlefiled, on February 23rd at the Methodist Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

In 1913, he lived in Winterport, Maine, and applied for membership in the A. N. A. In April 1913, he was assigned A.N.Member No. 1677. In 1913, he began to trade as a coin and stamp dealer.

In December 1913, he joined the National Philatelic Society and became member no. 151.

Fig. 10. Walter B. Gould correspondence with Henry Chapman, Jr., postmarked duplex cancel, 2c postage rate, June 28, 1913, Winterport, Maine. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

In March 1916, he moved to 292 Hammond Street, Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine.

In the July 1917 issue of The Numismatist, on page 306, "Numismatists Aid the Red Cross," Walter B. Gould raised funds for the Red Cross by donating 5,000 old U. S. Copper Cents placing them in drug stores to be sold for 10 cents apiece. At his labor and expense all mailing and collections were made giving the entire proceeds to the Red Cross Society. The story also was published in MeKeel's Weekly Stamp News, Vol. 31, June 30, 1917, page 220.

In 1918 he lived at 292 Hammond Street, Bangor, Maine.

Figs. 11 & 12. Walter B. Gould correspondence on 5 Centavos Ecuador Postal Stationery franked with 3 Cent purple Washington to Henry Chapman, Jr., postmarked Flag Cancel, May 1, 1918, Bangor, Maine. Back : Coin Dealer Cinderella Label- selling 100 U. S. Copper Cents for $1.70 postage paid. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

Fig. 13. Henry Chapman, Jr., correspondence with Walter B. Gould, postmarked registered mail, 16c postage rate, Scott # 506, and #510, Clarke #157 double oval cancel, January 16, 1920, Philadelphia. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

Fig. 14. Gould specimen of the B. Parker countermarked 1845 Large Cent. Gould sent in to the May 1914 issue of Collector's Blue Book, a report that he had two bushels of Large Cents of which eighty had countermarked names. In the August 1921 issue of The Numismatist, on pages 331-332, and page 378 in September, in Frank Duffield's, "A Trial List of the Countermarked Coins of the World," he contributed to the article on countermarked coins with stencil dies cut for Ben Parker with his counterstamp B. Parker. Also J. W. Strange, and his son C. A. Strange, and Thomas J. Stewart as T.J.S., in a large group of personal names stamped on coppers in the Gould collection. Gould knew Ben Parker and J. W. Strange when he was a boy. They were both metalworkers and brass founders. Russ Rulau wrote about them in his book, U. S. Trade Tokens 1866-1889 (Iola : Krause, 1988). These were later on written about by Dr. Gregory G. Brunk in the February 1989 issue of The Numismatist. Later Brunk published his classic work Merchant and Privately Countermarked Coins.

Fig. 15. A.N.A. Convention photograph in 1921. Walter B. Gould in the first row third on left to Henry Chapman.

He and his wife attended the 1921 A.N.A. Convention and are in the official photograph.

Fig. 16. Advertisement selling lot of 51 Large Cents with original Mint luster for $16.00. Set of bound volumes of American Journal of Numismatics 1874-1879 for only $10. A large lot of 42 bound coin coin books + pamphlets, catalogues and fixed price lists valued in 1926 at $100 selling at close out price for $25. George, David, and Charles there are still deals out there! Published in Philatelic West, Vol. 85, No. 1, October 1926. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Philatelic West.

In the 1930 U. S. Census he appears to be retired.

He died on July 26, 1932. He is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine. His Diaries are in the Bangor Public Library.

Bibliography :

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Saturday April 13, 1872, page 3.

U. S. Census - 1880

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Saturday, August 13, 1881, page 1

Moses Thurston Runnells, Genealogies (Sanbornton, New Hampshire1 : A Higginson Book Co., 881)

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Wednesday, November 3, 1888, page 2

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Saturday, April 27, 1889, page 2

U. S. Census - 1900

Omaha Daily Bee, Tuesday, January 1, 1907, page 10

U. S. Census - 1910

The Numismatist, Vol. 26, No. 3, March (1913) : 153

The Numismatist, Vol. 26, No. 4, April (1913) : 207

New England Philatelist, Vol. III, No. 13, December (1913) :

The Numismatist, Vol. 29, No. 4, April (1916) : 149

The Numismatist, Vol. 30, No. 7, July (1917) : 306

U. S. Census - 1920

The Numismatist, Vol. 34, No. 10, October (1921) : 463 listed as attended

U. S. Census - 1930

Richard G. Doty, ed., Token COAC No. 10, (ANS, 1994) : 46-47 / Digital Edition 31 August 2016.

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