Shiretown Coins moves to new downtown location

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
UP CLOSE — Galen Wilde, owner of Shiretown Coins, examines a coin from his new office at 25 Market Square. The business relocated after 22 years at it previous spot, just a few doors down from its new location.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Relocating a business is always a risky proposition. Business owners often wonder if their customers will be able to find them at their new location.
    Such is not the case for Galen Wilde, owner of Shiretown Coins. A few months ago, Shiretown Coins moved just a few doors down from its previous location at 37 Market Square to its new home at 25 Market Square. The site previously hosted Shiretown Video and Variety, and was also home to Beals Variety at one point.
    Wilde said he needed to look for a different location due to the expansion project on the corner of Market Square and Court Street, which cut into the amount of storage space he had. He had operated from 37 Market Square since 1990.
    “We didn’t have to move, but I lost a lot of space,” he explained. “So I started looking for another location and this one was available.”
    His new storefront is much larger than his previous location. Remaining in downtown Houlton was another requirement in his relocation.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
WALL OF COINS — Galen Wilde, owner of Shiretown Coins, shows off some of the many coins on display at his new location.
    “I really wanted to stay here in Market Square, because that is where people have come to find me,” he explained.
    Wilde has been in business for nearly 30 years, buying and selling coins and stamps. He added sports cards in 1983. The Market Square business also deals in gold and silver bouillon, diamonds and estate jewelry, which make up the largest share of his business.
    “The main thing right now is silver and gold,” Wilde said. “We buy scrap gold and silver. That is the No. 1 thing right now because of the economy.”
    Shiretown Coins also stocks collector cards of all sorts and sports memorabilia. They are also an authorized dealer for Lionel trains and have just about everything for Boston Red Sox and New York Yankee fans.
    Wilde got started in the profession because of his passion for collecting stamps many years ago.
    “I basically took my hobbies and put them together to make a business out of it,” he said. “I was probably 6 years old when I first started collecting stamps. There was no television when I was a child, so I started collecting stamps and coins. It was my way to see the world. It is unbelievable what you can learn from a country from its stamps.”
    He explained a stamp could reveal whether a particular country relied on farming, fishing, mining or industry, as well as what race the people were all from the items found on a stamp.
    His favorite stamps are his 1869 Pictorial Issue stamps, which first became available in March 1869. Another favorite set focuses on the anniversary of Christopher Columbus.
    “I have so many real good stamps, it’s hard to pin it down to just one,” he said.
    Wilde said having a sentimental attachment to items is not a good way to run a business when one is a dealer of goods.
    “There are collectors and there are dealers,” he said. “If you are a collector, you aren’t selling anything. When you have something nice, you hate to see it go. A dealer that gets attached to their inventory isn’t a dealer for very long.”
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
IN THE CARDS— Charlie McCarthy stands next to the sports card display case at Shiretown Coins.
    Wilde estimated his shop has nearly “half-a-million” sports cards.
    “Cards had their heyday in the 1990s,” Wilde said. “Then in the new millennium, things got more complicated as they started putting pieces of jerseys and baseballs in the packs, making some cards more collectible than others.”
    Charlie McCarthy handles the sports cards for the store.
    “There is still a lot of money in sports cards, but it has transition from a kid’s thing to an adult’s thing,” McCarthy said. “It’s nothing like it was even 10 years ago.”
    In recent years, the business sold a Mickey Mantle rookie card to a person from Colorado.
    “We have cards going back to the 1950s and even earlier,” McCarthy said.
    Shiretown Coins is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact them by calling 532-2647.