Every store has a story of its beginnings and its progress - so does this store. The story of Coin Mart Jewelry begins with “a little red wagon”.Now picture a small boy at the age of six or seven pulling a little red wagon. This may not seem unusual but in this case the small boy had a vision and determination to create a business which took him on the path to even greater achievements. This small boy was Martin Altbaum, a man ahead of his time and the founder of Coin Mart Jewelry formally established in 1959.Marty pulled his little red wagon filled with paper comic books and traded them two for one or collected a few pennies for each one, this often put cash in his hands which he then took to his Dad’s deli on El Cajon Boulevard. While exchanging them in Dad’s cash register for larger denominations the coins with interesting dates and various conditions intrigued him and thus the love of coins began.While in college Marty’s career began. Walker Scott department store in downtown San Diego was the first to showcase his collection and the first coin department in the store. He was so successful that running out of collectable coins happened frequently. The County Fair in Del Mar was another first place for a coin booth established by Marty. Later he opened stores in downtown San Diego, North Park, Pacific Beach and finally in Chula Vista. He printed and distributed a small book about the coins he needed and had for sale. This kept his inventory at top levels. Three teletype machines ran continuously recording moment to moment nationwide coin transactions. The name “Cap Pistol Marty” let everyone on the teletype know he was fast on trades so “don’t delay”. If they saw a good deal on line, they all knew they had to “get it before he did!”