Laurie Bamford

Who was Laurie Bamford?

Laurence "Laurie" John Bamford was a popular British Numismatist also known as the 'smartly dressed tramp'.

He was educated at Trinity School of John Whitgift in Croydon, London. His interest in coins started at a very early age. His fascination for old bronze and copper pennies started when he went on a family holiday to Herne Bay and was captivated by the coins in the amusement arcade machines situated on the sea front. As far back as 1961, Laurie attended the Sunday morning coin market in East London in Cutler Street along with colleague, Hiram Brown. By 1966 Laurie had established himself as one of the Cutler Street collectors alongside Ted Swift, Ted Barnard, Eva Hardy, Jim Hardiman Sr, Ken Lovell, James Leonard and the poet David Nash. Cutler Street was then a well known location for buying and selling small antiques, coins and medals. It was located near the other famous Sunday market - Petticoat Lane.

In the mid 1960s Laurie attended St. Stephen's Church over 18's youth club at Thornton Heath and later worked as a Computer Programmer for Prudential Assurance where he was one of the very early users of the programming language COBOL. He worked for the 'Pru' as it was more commonly known for just over eight years. He left to become a full-time coin dealer, at the same time adding to his collection of Victorian Pennies from such dealers as James Leonard, an Australian-born dealer who lived near him in Streatham, London. He also augmented his collection from the coin dealers Stewart Ward based in Bond Street, London.