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I'm currently living in Paris. While the French have a reputation of being rude towards Americans, as a fluent French speaker (albeit with an American accent), I have found that Parisians have been, on the whole, very welcoming to me. Not so when I stepped into this coin shop.
To be fair, it wasn't a true coin shop but a precious metal dealer. Thus nothing was on display and you had to ask for the specific coin you wanted. I didn't notice this until after I entered the store and greeted the dealer. While I have collected coins for over a decade, my area of expertise is in American and Canadian coinage. I didn't know what to ask for in regards to French coinage, so I asked if he had any American or Canadian silver coins.
He seemed a bit put-off (as in why would an American come all the way to Paris to look at American coins -- fine, 'tis fair). He presented a tray with a hodge-podge of American and Canadian coins with no organization to them. I could not search through it as he was behind glass. He showed me a few common-date half dollars which I wasn't really interested in and said "non, merci." I saw a Standing Liberty quarter (American, from the 1900s-1920s). I asked to see the "quarter with the bird on it" (I don't know how to say "Standing Liberty Quarter" in French -- there probably isn't even a term for it).
After he picked up 2 or 3 coins NEAR the quarter, none of which had birds on them, he finally got it right, then THREW the quarter at me through the empty space in the glass. While the reverse looked nice I flipped it over and the obverse looked disgusting. I declined to buy it and he said, as if I were a complete idiot, "Well that's the price of the metal sir!!" And I left.
Considering I was the ONLY person in the store, you would think he could have had a little more patience. Then again, maybe that's why I was the only person in the store.
Also, one of his half-dollars in his silver tray was not made of silver. So who's really the idiot? ;-)
To be fair, it wasn't a true coin shop but a precious metal dealer. Thus nothing was on display and you had to ask for the specific coin you wanted. I didn't notice this until after I entered the store and greeted the dealer. While I have collected coins for over a decade, my area of expertise is in American and Canadian coinage. I didn't know what to ask for in regards to French coinage, so I asked if he had any American or Canadian silver coins.
He seemed a bit put-off (as in why would an American come all the way to Paris to look at American coins -- fine, 'tis fair). He presented a tray with a hodge-podge of American and Canadian coins with no organization to them. I could not search through it as he was behind glass. He showed me a few common-date half dollars which I wasn't really interested in and said "non, merci." I saw a Standing Liberty quarter (American, from the 1900s-1920s). I asked to see the "quarter with the bird on it" (I don't know how to say "Standing Liberty Quarter" in French -- there probably isn't even a term for it).
After he picked up 2 or 3 coins NEAR the quarter, none of which had birds on them, he finally got it right, then THREW the quarter at me through the empty space in the glass. While the reverse looked nice I flipped it over and the obverse looked disgusting. I declined to buy it and he said, as if I were a complete idiot, "Well that's the price of the metal sir!!" And I left.
Considering I was the ONLY person in the store, you would think he could have had a little more patience. Then again, maybe that's why I was the only person in the store.
Also, one of his half-dollars in his silver tray was not made of silver. So who's really the idiot? ;-)