Charles Henry Coster (1852-1900)

He was born in New York City. Both his grandfathers (John G. Coster and Nathaniel Prime) were named among New York's five millionaires in 1830. Like his maternal grandfather, he went into banking and partnered with Arthur E. Newbold before they became partners with J.P. Morgan & Co. He was recognized as, "among the four or five great organizing minds" of Wall Street, being particularly effective at re-organizing railroads. Before building his mansion at Tuxedo Park (see images) in 1899, he lived at 37 East 37th Street. He was one of the first students of philately in America. His interest started in the 1860s when he was still a teenager and he went on to put together one of the most important collections of his time of U.S. Carriers and Locals, Postal Stationery, and Forgeries. In 1877, he wrote a seminal book, The United States Locals and Their History. Coster wrote extensively on other topics during the 1870s and 1880s, most notably on U.S. Postmaster Provisionals and Postal Stationery. He was the only American to present a paper at the Congrès International des Timbrophiles in Paris in 1878 and was acknowledged as America's most prolific philatelic writer of his era.