The most prominent dealer in the United States, through much of the first half of the 20th century, he is credited with helping to expand the appeal of coin collecting from a hobby for the wealthy to one enjoyed by many.

His family brought him to what is now Lithuania, and then to the United States, settling in Fort Worth, Texas, where he lived for almost all of his adult life.

Joining the American Numismatic Association (ANA) in 1903 at age 18, he quickly became a full-time coin dealer, and by 1910 was one of the most well-known in the country.

During his half-century of coin dealing, his customer list included Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Colonel E. H. R. Green.

He claimed to have spent over a million dollars on advertisements offering to buy a 1913 Liberty Head nickel for $50, though he knew there were none in circulation to be found.

[2] In 1885, the Mehl family, including Benjamin, moved to Vilkomu, in the province of Kovno[3] (modern day Kaunas, Lithuania).

[3] Seeking greater opportunities, in 1895 the Mehl family, including Benjamin, immigrated to the United States, arriving there in April of that year.

[3][4] They initially lived in New York,[5] and settled for a time in Denton, Texas[4] before moving to Fort Worth, likely because Rachel Mehl had family there.

Likely part of a letter to Secretary Heath endorsing the magazine, they read, "I am indeed more than pleased with The Numismatist and think it is the best publication of its kind.

[1] Mehl's first mail-order advertisement appeared in the December 1903 issue of The Numismatist, selling 33 U.S. coins on a highest-bidder basis.

The sale was likely not a success, as most of the coins were listed on a circular Mehl sent by mail in January 1904, but the following month, he placed his first full-page advertisement in The Numismatist.

Cowell, a Coloradan who was selling his collection, who sent many rare pieces to Mehl on consignment, allowing him to offer rarities that otherwise would have been beyond his means.

This book, published by Alexander & Co. of Boston, was widely-sold, and coin dealers could order copies imprinted with their name and address for sale to the public for a small fee.

This proved successful as an advertising strategy,[9] helping to transform coin collecting, once a niche hobby for the wealthy and for students of art and archeology, into a pastime for the masses.

[8] In 1916, Mehl engaged local architect Wiley G. Clarkson to design a three-story, 16,000-square-foot office building of brick, ornamented with stone bas-reliefs of antique coins.

Located at 1200 W. Magnolia Avenue, the building was the working place of Mehl and 40 employees (an increase from 10 in 1912) who dealt with correspondence and orders from a subscription list of 70,000 customers.

[16] Mehl similarly acquired (from Zerbe, the coin's promoter) thousands of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition dollars and sold them to his customers.

[8] During the Great Depression, the Fort Worth, Tex., dealer B. Max Mehl carried on a years-long newspaper advertising campaign (which he later admitted had cost him over a million 1930s dollars!

This offer was not bona-fide, being merely a come-on to promote sales of his Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia, which went through over 30 editions despite being of no numismatic value.

He turned the sale to good account in his advertising, noting that he had paid over $2,000 (equivalent to $34,164 in 2023) for an old silver dollar and wondering what rarities the reader might have undiscovered in their possession.

[19] Similarly, Mehl boasted of spending a million dollars advertising in vain to buy a 1913 Liberty Head nickel, knowing that none of these extremely rare coins were to be found in circulation.

[9] Though he bought many other coins as a result, his primary purpose was to promote the sale of his catalogue,[20] and his campaign supposedly led to transit delays in some cities as trolley conductors checked through their change.

[21] According to a 1929 article on Mehl, he was among the top five recipients of mail in Fort Worth, and during the busier part of the year, ranked second or third,[22] though another source states he accounted for more than half of Fort Worth's incoming mail,[1] leading the post office to put additional trucks on the Magnolia Avenue route.

[2] During the commemorative coin boom of the 1930s, Mehl continued to push them, noting that they had gone up in value during the Depression years even as stocks sank.

The Mint refused, but did agree to strike more of the original coins, few of which were made available to the public, but were sold by Mehl at a premium above the issue price.

[34] Coin dealer Abe Kosoff wrote in Mehl's 1957 obituary in the pages of The Numismatist, "Max was master of the finesse of cataloging.

B. Max Mehl died on September 28, 1957, having had a serious heart condition for some time,[1][2] and was interred two days later, with Abe Kosoff as one of his pallbearers,[36] in the Beth-El section of Greenwood Cemetery in Fort Worth.

"[9] Daniel C. Parker called Mehl "the father of modern coin collecting ... he more than anyone before or since that time popularized our hobby.

He was credited with being a tremendous advocate for coin collecting, using newspaper and magazine ads and radio programs to spread the word.