The name of Coops in collecting circles goes back nearly 100 years to 1907 when Fred W. Coops, Sr. at age 13, founded the Royale Stamp Company in Taunton, MA. It was a mail-order business that he could operate when he wasn't working for his father, Charles, who was in the music business and manufactured pianos. His main vocation became the piano business, but the stamp company grew as well. As Fred married and had a family of his own, the piano company moved first to Tacoma, WA and subsequently to South Pasadena, CA.
Fred W. Coops, Jr. was born in South Pasadena in 1918 and grew up closely associated not only with pianos but stamps as his dad's mail order flourished. Unfortunately though, the piano business he had been prepared to enter failed early in the Depression and father and son were faced with unemployment. Fred, Jr. graduated from high school in 1935 and in that same year both he and his father opened the stamp stores, but in different locations: Sr. in Pasadena on South Raymond and Jr. in San Bernardino.
The early years were difficult for Fred, Jr. but he stuck with it and the business grew. Except for a few years during the war when relatives ran his store while he was in the Army Air Corps, Fred operated his company continuously from 1935 until his death in January 1992. Coins and paper money were added to be the larger part of the business.
Fred occupied several locations in San Bernardino: on Third Street next to the Pacific Electric Depot; on Fourth Street next to the California Theater (1948-1960); on D Street near Fourth Street (1961); at 457 North E Street (1961-1975); and in Carousel Mall (1975-1995), and finally to it's current location on Redlands Boulevard.
By the mid-1960's Fred realized the need for more employees and it was at this time that John Dudding (1964) and Randy Briggs (1966) entered the business. In 1976 the company incorporated.
