
DATE: Saturday, November 29, 1997           TAG: 9711290246

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW 

        STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   93 lines

TRAVELING THROUGH HISTORY, A PENNY AT A TIME

The sight of a kangaroo hopping across an Australian penny was the impetus for David Consolvo to jettison his career as a medical researcher and return to his childhood love of collecting coins.

At the time, the young doctor was working in New Zealand. He visited a coin show and came across the kangaroo pennies, which he had never seen before because they had been out of circulation for years.

When he spied the big coins, about the size of an American 50-cent piece, he was so delighted by the marsupial imprint that he revived his hobby. He joined a local coin club, which led to an interest in British coins, readily available then in Australia.

``Most people don't have a turning point in their lives,'' he said, ``but that was mine.''

Today, the 41-year-old Virginia Beach native owns Virginia Historic Coins and fills a niche in the world of coin collecting. He supplies historic site gift shops, among them Mount Vernon and Monticello, with old coins that reflect the historic times of the homes.

Consolvo, who now lives in Central Virginia, was in town visiting his family for the holiday. He spoke Friday at historic Francis Land House in Virginia Beach on ``Two Bits, Four Bits: Colonial Coinage'' and also brought some coins from his own collection for visitors to see.

The Francis Land House gift shop is one of 24 historic home and museum gift shops to sell Consolvo's coins, each one neatly packaged in a cardboard display with a label and date on it. Among those in the Land House shop are Colonial coins that would have been carried by the average citizen in Land's time. Some sell for less than $10.

The shop also sells British silver coins with the likeness of Princess Anne on them because Virginia Beach was once Princess Anne County. The coins sell well, said Mark Reed, Land House administrator.

``I think it's because they are unique,'' Reed said. ``These things are authentic. Everything else we have here is reproductions.''

Consolvo didn't make the jump from doctor to coin dealer immediately. It took a few years for the coins to take over his career altogether. When he returned to the United States, he worked as a medical researcher at the University of Virginia for nine years and operated Virginia Historic Coins on the side.

Ash Lawn, James Monroe's house outside Charlottesville, was Consolvo's first customer, and the business grew from there. Two years ago, it became full time, and he thinks he has a corner on the historic site gift shop market.

``Nobody else does this,'' he said. ``I don't have any competition. ``

Selling to Mount Vernon meant a kangaroo leap in business for Consolvo.

``I'm thinking bigger now,'' he said. ``I shied away from taking on Mount Vernon. They have a million visitors a year and I wasn't sure I could supply them.''

He could and did. Mount Vernon purchased $40,000 worth of coins from him last year.

``I'm not getting rich from it,'' Consolvo said, ``but it's enough to make a living.''

Consolvo purchases most of his coins from large auction houses and big dealers. They are looking for gold coins and rare coins, while Consolvo is looking for lower-end, affordable coins that might have been carried in the average man's pocket.

``Dealers are happy to find someone like me to sell to,'' he said.

Many of Consolvo's coins are slightly worn. Although you can see the imprints and dates, you also can imagine that someone else back in time has rubbed his fingers on those coins and let them jingle in his pocket.

``Typically people who are interested in history want a piece of history,'' Consolvo said. ``And they can have something carried in people's pockets 200 to 300 years ago.''

As a child, Consolvo had no interest in Colonial coins. He was happy to collect U.S. pennies. But he does know that those early days influenced his adult avocation.

``Ninety percent of coin collectors got started that way,'' he said.

Consolvo attended Norfolk Academy as a youngster. As is typical of young coin collectors, he lost interest in the hobby when he was a teen-ager. Although he had a strong interest in history, he went on to study pre-med at the University of Virginia, transferring to Virginia Tech for biomedical studies and then returned to Virginia for a medical degree.

``I always liked history,'' Consolvo said. ``Now I get paid basically to study history. I get paid to do what I want to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: TAMARA VONINSKI photos/The Virginian-Pilot

David Consolvo of Virginia Historic Coins examines a coin Friday at

the Francis Land House in Virginia Beach. The doctor-turned-coin

collector lectured on historical currency and displayed part of his

own collection. Collecting pennies as a child led him to this job

and longtime hobby.

Consolvo deals mostly in pieces that were probably pocket change

hundreds of years ago. He sells to historical gift shops, providing

currency that fits the period. This is a piece of Virginia paper

money from the 1700s. KEYWORDS: COIN COLLECTING