Deborah Conrad

Deborah Conrad didn’t know much about coins or typing. But the Plainfield resident needed a job — she was recently divorced and had a child. Her daughter Erika Smith says that led her to apply for a job at International Coins and Currency in Montpelier. She says her mom eventually became a top-salesperson at the company.

"She didn't know how to type, so she had this old-fashioned typewriter that I think that my grandmother had had. And she had a book, and she would just sit on the living room floor with everything around her, and just like practice, practice, practice typing ... She learned how to inspect coins, to know their value. She had all these books at home that she would research, and she would just like, take coins out of her purse and just start looking them up even just to look and get used to looking at mint marks, marks on the quality of the coin and, you know, all of these. And of course, she was selling, you know, really, really valuable coins. But just thinking about not having any of that experience and just kind of learning as she went, and how far she was able to go with it. "

Deborah Conrad died on Dec. 26, 2020 at Berlin Health and Rehab. She was 70.

Erika Smith remembering mother Deborah Lee Conrad

Berlin, Vermont