Scott Mansch

smansch@greatfallstribune.com

His and Hers Coins has provided value for downtown Great Falls ever since 1965.

But better than 50 years of buying and selling will cease later this month when the business shuts its doors for good.

“There will be tears,” Debbe Harris says.

There was also plenty of emotion a half-century ago when Debbe’s father, Don Harris, decided to enter the coin collecting enterprise.

“Dad came home one day and announced to my mother ‘I have quit my job.’ And she was mortified,” Debbe says with laugh.

“Dad had a friend, Howard Hall,” Debbe says. “Howard was with Malmstrom and Dad was with the Air National Guard. They started collecting pennies. And it kind of just grew from there.”

The Harris family, which also included Don’s wife, Doris, and Debbe’s older brother, David, lived on Central Ave. W. Don and Howard started a business called “H and H Coins.”

And Don quit his other job.

“This is what my mother told us,” Debbe says. ‘I was so mad at your Dad.’ ”

Doris got over it. And soon she was a partner with her husband in a Great Falls operation that became known as His and Hers Coins.

THE BUSINESS THRIVED 50 years ago.

“There was interest in coins back then,” Debbe says. “They worked out of the basement, and then we bought Liberty Corner (301 Central Ave.) The door was literally right on the corner, and it was the windiest corner in Great Falls.”

She chuckles.

“You would have to pull on the door with two hands because the wind was blowing hard,” she says. “Just a little tiny business. It started out as Harris and Hall. Coins. Buy, sell or trade. So it was H and H Coins.”

Pretty soon, Hall was transferred away from Great Falls.

Says Debbe: “Another customer, and I believe it was Jess Whitney, who used to be a principal in town here (at Franklin Elementary, among other schools), said ‘Oh Don, just call it His and Hers, since it will be you and Doris.’ And that’s what it changed to.”

That was 1965. Business was pretty fair.

“At that point in time they’d taken silver out of the coinage, so it wasn’t circulating,” she says. “So there was interest.

“There was a faction in Great Falls that wanted to learn more about coins. There have been coin clubs in town over the years. But the last one we had was like 25 years ago.”

Doris had worked for the phone company. But she quit to devote her time to the new coin business.

Debbe, 59, and David, 60, grew up in the store.

“We were around the business all the time,” she says. “I’ve been here, gainfully employed, for 30 years. And David has been here 40.”

But things don’t ever stay the same.

“No they don’t,” she says.

So on June 30, His and Hers Coins will be no more.

“It is sad,” Debbe says. “But it will be a celebration, also.”

HIS AND HERS has been at its current location, 622 Central Ave., since 1981. It was the fourth and final stop for the business.

“We started on the Liberty Corner, then went to 524 Central,” Debbe says. “Then we went to the Davidson Building, 10 3rd Street, and then here.”

And how has business been over the years?

“Well, you figure it’s hobby-related,” Debbe says. “It’s not something that people have to have. But we’re still in business after 52 years.”

Doris died last August. Don has been gone since February, 1999.

“My Dad passed away, and the fact we’re still here 18 years later, is fascinating,” Debbe says. “Not in a million years did I think that would happen.”

WHAT WAS DON HARRIS like?

“He was generous to a fault,” Debbe says. “He would bend over backward to talk to people. He loved to bowl and he loved to be out on the water.

“And he was a good businessman. He enjoyed it.”

In November of 1987, Don added sports card collecting to the coin operation. There was quite a market for baseball and football cards back then.

“There still is, but it’s changed,” Debbe says. “So we got out of sports cards five years ago. The Internet had a lot to do with it. The Internet has a lot to do with coin shops, also. There are a lot of coin shops now that are closing their doors.”

That’s not the only reason His and Hers Coins is closing, though.

“Hobbies are going by the wayside,” Debbe says. “It’s not holding the interest of younger people. It’s just not what it used to be.”

She says it’s too bad.

“With coin collecting, you can learn so much history,” she says. “You can get involved with early 1800 stuff, early 1700 stuff … And that’s important.”

STORIES COME TO MIND. Not all of them are pleasant.

“We were never robbed, but we have been burglarized,” Debbe says. “And there have been coin dealers (across the country) who have been robbed. And killed.”

The break-ins were bad enough.

“Probably three or four times,” Debbe says. “There’s one time in particular that sticks in my mind. Dad had some Bob Scriver bronzes, and we had three of them sitting out in the window here. They weighed 70 or 80 pounds apiece.”

And were worth perhaps $6,500 each.

“We put some chocolate, foil-covered ‘gold’ coins out there, as decoration,” Debbe smiles. “And somebody broke the window and took those coins.”

The robbers left the bronzes and took the “gold coins.”

“Are you kidding me?” Debbe laughs. “Talk about a ‘Stupid Crook’ thing. We were like, ‘Hey, enjoy your chocolate.’ ”

THE SHOP’S BASEBALL card history includes a few stories, too.

“My dad had a Mickey Mantle,” Debbe says, referring to a 1952 rookie card of the legendary New York Yankee.

It was worth $7,500 back about 25 years ago. Don sold it.

“That was one thing Dad learned,” Debbe says again with a laugh. “You can’t be both a collector and a dealer, because you’d save everything.”

The memories are magnificent. And the Harris siblings say the business that has been their family’s lifeline has been tremendous.

“Just excellent,” she says.

But not for too much longer.

“You’re right,” Debbe says softly. “Not for too much longer.”

THE CITY OF GREAT FALLS supported the business well.

“Also the smaller towns in the surrounding area,” Debbe says. “I still have a customer who lives in Miami, Florida. And I’ve had a customer who lives in London, England.”

What do collectors still favor?

“A lot of it is bullion. Gold and silver,” Debbe says.

The older the better?

“Not necessarily,” she says. “It has to be scarce. It has to have limited mintages. And that comes with a price tag.”

On a warm afternoon last week, with nostalgia in the air at one of the iconic businesses in downtown Great Falls, we wondered about something:

In a half-century of business, was the best day at work when a “big sale” was made? Or maybe when a lot of people were in there shopping? Or maybe when you don’t get broken into?

“Goodness,” Debbe says with a laugh. And then she pauses.

“A ‘best day’ was a day when you had consumers,” she says. Then she smiles again and holds up her hand to display five digits.

“In the last 30 years, there’s been less (days) than on one hand where we haven’t had a sale,” she says. “Maybe five days over 30 years.”

Dave is having some health issues. Debbe’s daughter, Darla, who grew up around the business, lives out of state, has a family of her own and is uninterested in making His and Hers a three-generation enterprise.

Debbe says it’s just time. But that’s not to say the business could not endure.

“We could. We could keep going,” Debbe says. “But it’s just a matter of circumstances. One person cannot run this whole show by themselves.”

THE LAST DAY of business is Friday, June 30. Customers and friends are encouraged to stop in to say hello.

Debbe says it is a bittersweet time. She tries to smile as she looks to the back of the long, narrow building to where her mother once sat and her father’s desk still stands.

“I sit at both places every day,” she says. “They are still with me every day.”

Her lips tremble.

“So it will be hard,” she says.

Mansch On Montana, dedicated to the personalities and places that make living in Great Falls and Montana so special, appears in the Tribune on Mondays. Scott Mansch can be reached at 791-1481 or smansch@greatfallstribune.com