Passing of a friend, Julie Turoff

This past weekend I learned of the death of long-time NYC collector Julius Turoff.

As a youngster in the 1970s NY Coin show scene, I remember Julie and his wonderful wife as very supportive of a new collector. With five coin shows and several monthly club meetings to attend, they would always be considerate of questions and helpful with support on exhibits and even making themselves available to drive to further out club meetings.

We would often be exhibiting at the Metropolitian NY Numismatic Convention, the NY International, AINA, GENA and Long Island Coin Club shows. The dinners for the show workers (Mrs. Turoff held court at registration, Julie often with the exhibits and educational forums) were always filled with his humor and stories.

Meetings of the Long Island Coin Club, the Flushing Coin Club, the New York Numismatic Club benifited from his research on odd topics (by the 1970s he was collecting NYC exonumia - with specialities on the Statue fo Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge), however he had a great love of the classic 19th Century US Mint Medals by Longacre, Morgan, Barber and others. He enjoyed sharing and telling a story with an educational exhibit.

It was years later that I found out he had a named collection auction of US Coins and Paper Money thru the original incarnation of Bowers & Merena. Since the 1970s he had been exhibiting exonumia, but he still had many nice U.S. patterns which he would often share at meetings of the New York Numismatic Club.

He had a hard last year or two with his health, but lived into his 90s. I really enjoyed the enthusiam he brought to the hobby.

Thanks Julie!

George