copies. These sold for $1 (the price later increased) to members of the public who were hopeful of picking a valuable coin out of their pocket change. Mehl did not limit himself to advertisements in the numismatic press. Beginning in 1904, he placed classified ads in the Fort Worth Telegram. In 1906, he became the first coin dealer to advertise in the national non-numismatic press, with five lines in Collier's magazine, at an expense of $12.50. This proved successful as an advertising strategy, 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. In 1906, Mehl came east for the first time, visiting New York and the coin business of Lyman H. Low for his first coin auction, where he proved an active participant. Numismatist Farran Zerbe commented on Mehl's youth. Mehl also visited Boston and Philadelphia. In July 1906, he wrote to his customers that he was now a full-time coin dealer, something that likely came as a surprise to many of them, who assumed that he had long been one. According to Bowers, "by 1910, his innovative advertising and colorful personality projected him to the first rank of dealers." By 1907, Mehl had opened his own office at 1309 Main Street in Fort Worth. On August 18, 1907, Mehl and Ethel Rosen married, in the parlor of Ethel's uncle, Northside Fort Worth developer Sam Rosen. Ethel Mehl's family also had roots in Lithuania. They had two daughters, Lorraine and Danna. In January 1908, Mehl began to publish Mehl's Numismatic Monthly, with guest contributors including some of the leading numismatists of the day. Published until 1919 with a hiatus in 1911–1912, according to Bowers it "gave The Numismatist a run for its money and in many aspects was more interestingly edited". When Heath, the editor of The Numismatist, died unexpectedly in 1908, Mehl offered the Numismatic Monthly as a replacement journal for the ANA, but Zerbe took over The Numismatist and continued it. In 1912, Mehl moved to New York to join fellow dealer Wayte Raymond in a partnership. Mehl was concerned about his relative isolation in Texas from the rest of the numismatic world. However, after only a few weeks, Mehl returned to Fort Worth, writing in The Numismatist that serious illness in his family had required his return, and personal matters then