If you have any stories, anecdotes, insight, photos of Frank - his shop, cues, etc., magazine or newspaper articles or whatever please email or phone me. Your information will be posted on this website with credit given for your contribution.

As stolen from the 'Blue Book of Pool Cues' 3rd & 2nd editions by Brad Simpson  -  published 1999 & 2005

Frank Coster

Maker of pool cues from 1982 to 1991 in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, a suburb of of Allentown.
Frank Coster was a tool and die maker for Western Electric in Allentown, PA.  He enjoyed playing checkers and pool as a hobby, and was a member of the Allentown pool league team.  Frank retired from Western Electric in 1981, after more than thirty years work there.  One year later, in 1982 he made his first cue.  Frank did all of his work by hand in his one-man shop.  He blueprinted all of his designs and inlays.
Coster cues most often encountered will have bird's eye maple forearms and butt sleeves with Irish linen wraps.  Frank sold many of his cues out of Jordan Lanes in Allentown, the home base for his pool league team.  He priced them for the local league players, charging relatively little compared to comparably skilled cuemakers of the time.  Although he loved to make fancy cues, only about 10% of Coster cues encountered will be fancy, and these cues demand a premium.  Fancy Coster cues were decorated with very intricate ivory inlays shaped like gears.  He always put inlays at the tips of the points.
People who knew Frank remember the shop he had in his basement where he hung hundreds of pieces of wood to age for years, dating each one when he put it up.  He had a nine foot Brunswick 'Gold Crown' in his shop and many trophies he had won in pool and checker tournaments.  Frank was very well liked by the people for whom he made cues, one of them being Allen Hopkins.  Friends remember him as a quiet man who was very precise and neat.  He finished his last cue in April of 1991.  Frank died one month later on May 12, 1991.
Coster cues were not marked, but are identifiable by their unique designs and flat faced joint with a brass insert in the shaft. 

As stolen from the 'Blue Book of Pool Cues' 1st edition by Brad Simpson  -  published 1996

Frank Costa

Maker of pool cues from mid 1970s to the late 1980s in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Very little is known at this point about Frank Costa, mainly because he is believed to have made more 130 cues.  Costa cues most often encountered will have bird's eye maple forearms and butt sleeves with Irish Linen wraps.  Although he loved to make fancy cues, only about 10% of Coster cues encountered will be fancy, and these cues seem to demand a premium.  He charged relatively little for his cues compared to similar cuemakers of his time.
People who knew Frank remember the shop he had in his garage in Allentown, where he hung hundreds of pieces of wood to age for years.  Frank was a machinist by trade, and enjoyed playing pool as a hobby.  He also enjoyed the game of checkers.  Frank was very well liked by the people whom he made cues for, one of them being Allen Hopkins.  Frank's wife committed suicide due to a terminal illness.  Two weeks later, Frank committed suicide on her grave.
Coster cues were not marked, but are identifiable by their flat faced joint with a brass insert in the shaft.