By ROD LEE

Dave Delaney has worn a number of hats in the town of Millbury over the years, including as owner of a laundromat, Sudz City, and as a selectman.

Now he is the dealer principal with Delaney’s Coin Shop in the Felter’s Mill on West St. He specializes in coins, currency and supplies—buying and selling.

The business is a natural for him.

 Stacks of “motion picture money” are good for conversation at Delaney’s Coin Shop.

“I have been collecting since I was seven, forty-six years,” he said on the morning of April 19th. “My mom died of COVID-19 recently,” which prompted a reassessment of his priorities. With his term as a member of the Board of Selectmen ending, “I felt it was time to focus on my family and business,” he said. He was standing behind a display case, one of several in which all kinds of coins are available to peruse and purchase.

“One hundred percent of our business is online,” he said. Nevertheless, his shop is open 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

“It’s a great hobby,” Mr. Delaney said, of coin collecting. “It’s also a good one right now. With the economy the way it is, there is a lot of interest in it. With the price of silver and gold, people are investing in precious metals.”

He advises against putting these in the hands of a company that deals in that commodity, like the ones that advertise their services on radio and TV. “These are tangible items,” he said of silver and gold. “Don’t send them out. What if they go belly up?”

Mr. Delaney revealed that he “kind of made world news” a while back when he discovered and returned $534 a woman had left in her clothing at the laundromat. He became an overnight sensation, with reporters and camera crews appearing out of thin air.

“It’s one of the times in your life that you never forget,” he said, laughing. “What an experience that was.”

Returning that money typifies the creed he lives by, he says. “Be honest, ethical and legal.”

Asked about stacks of “money” that looks real he has in the shop, he smiled and said “that’s motion picture money. Worthless. I bought a million dollars of it. When I opened a suitcase full of that money my wife said to me ‘my God, what have you done!’”

The money is “just a conversation piece,” he said.

Contact Rod Lee at [email protected] or 774-232-2999.