Collecting Friends: The Secret Lives of Numismatists

The Secret Lives of Numismatists

Dennis: It’s easy to think of coin collectors (or paper-money collectors, or medal and token collectors) as one-dimensional—“a numismatist is a numismatist is a numismatist.” Non-collectors certainly have their stereotypes about us: nerdy, awkward, boring, what-have-you. But anyone who’s been in the hobby long enough knows a collector or two with a surprising hidden life.

Off the top of my head, three well-known numismatic authors serve as examples: one is a musician, one a martial artist, and another a master of the macabre.

Gene Hessler, who turned 96 in the summer of 2024, is the musician. Paper-money collectors hear his name and they think of books like the Comprehensive Catalog of U.S. Paper Money, The Engraver’s Line, and U.S. Essay, Proof, and Specimen Notes. He’s written for numerous hobby publications, and he edited Paper Money magazine for fourteen years. He was curator of the Chase Manhattan Bank Money Museum in the 1960s and ’70s, and for the St. Louis Mercantile Bank Money Museum in the 1980s.

Gene’s “secret” life outside of numismatics wasn’t really a secret—in fact, a book has been written about it. Hey! Mister Horn Blower tells about Gene Hessler’s life in both music and numismatics. He studied music in Cincinnati and traveled as a trombonist with bandleaders like Woody Herman and Billy May, then had a thirty-plus-year career on Broadway as a pit-orchestra performer for musicals like The Music Man, Camelot, and Annie. His career crossed paths with Doc Severinsen, Urbie Green, Buddy Rich, and other New York musicians and bandleaders . . . the New York Philharmonic . . . the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra . . .Leonard Bernstein . . . Leopold Stokowski . . . and other musical legends. 

In 2022 the Cincinnati Numismatic Association created the Gene Hessler Literary Award to recognize excellent research and writing in the association’s newsletter.

The martial artist is award-winning author Allan Schein of Salt Lake City, Utah. Collectors know Allan for his research in U.S. gold coinage (The $2-1/2 and $5 Gold Indians of Bela Lyon Pratt) and Mexican coins (Mexican Beauty – Bella Mexicana: Un Peso Caballito). His work has won recognition from the Numismatic Literary Guild and the Alberto Francisco Pradeau Award from the Sociedad Numismática de México.

Outside of numismatics, Allan is a black belt and grandmaster in the Korean martial art of taekwondo. He was an endurance and long-distance athlete before he started studying the ancient form. His taekwondo training and competition began in Vermont, and he’s lived since the 1990s in Utah, where he built a formal Dojang (training studio) in his home. He’s the coauthor, with Grandmaster Dong Keun Park, of Tae Kwon Do, The Indomitable Martial Art of Korea: Basics, Techniques, and Forms.

Beyond Allan’s familiar presence on the bourse of major coin shows and his achievements in the world of martial arts, he’s an accomplished woodworker who sells his creative works on Etsy as “Gnarlywoodman.”

And the numismatic master of the macabre? That would be Mike Thorne of Starkville, Mississippi. Hobbyists know Mike for his book reviews, market commentary, and “Basics and Beyond” hobby advice in Coins magazine and Numismatic News. He started writing for Coins in 1985 and has 1,000-plus articles to his credit in various national publications. What his readers might not realize is that Dr. Thorne, with a PhD in experimental psychology, had a concurrent career as an academic psychologist . . . and also a side gig in horror and crime short stories and novels. In two books set in fictional Harper, Alabama, we get the sense that Mike has seen things that most coin collectors never encounter. In 2017’s Murder in Memory, a serial killer employed at a university counseling center frames one of his patients for his murders by using false-memory hypnosis. His latest horror novel, Harper’s Bizarre (2023), reveals how fragile the veneer of civilization can be, even in a small town—an idea that emphasizes how precious civilization itself is.

Steve, you know a lot of people in the hobby community. Do any interesting “secret lives” or little-known non-numismatic careers come to mind?

Steve: Dennis! I just got the most wonderful book by Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, titled David Rittenhouse: Philosopher-Mechanik of Colonial Philadelphia and His Famous Clocks. The odd spelling is part of the title, akin to the New-York Historical Society. Rittenhouse was the first director of the U.S. Mint and a true multi-hyphenate, as seen in his Wikipedia entry which lists some of his occupations: “American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman, and public official.” 

The book explores in depth the clocks he made as a self-taught craftsman that were innovative, complicated machines that replicated the movements of the solar system. Clockmaking provided Rittenhouse with a way to use his scientific interests in a practical way. His younger brother Benjamin was also a clockmaker, and the brothers’ use of local engravers to engrave dials has apparently made confidently attributing a Rittenhouse clock somewhat problematic for scholars.

Like with numismatics, clockmaking has its own specific language and the innovations of the Rittenhouse clocks are best left to specialists, like the book’s authors, to explain. Ever entrepreneurial, Rittenhouse also made surveying instruments, and other mechanical devices like thermometers, barometers, and even a pair of spectacles for George Washington! Thomas Jefferson considered Rittenhouse on par with Benjamin Franklin and Washington, citing them as individuals that proved the intellects of North Americans were on par with the finest in the world. 

The book’s authors ask in the preface, “Do we really need yet another book about David Rittenhouse,” citing more than 10 books on him including a comprehensive 614-page biography written by his nephew in 1813, before proving that their book adds significant value to the existing literature. By focusing on his clockmaking, it allows his other activities – astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, U.S. Mint director and patriot – to be put in context. It’s incredible that what numismatists know Rittenhouse for – as the first U.S. Mint director – is just a brief chapter in a fascinating life.  

Be on the lookout for another installment of Collecting Friends next month or subscribe here and never miss a post! In the meantime, explore beautiful coins from the ANA's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum Virtual Exhibits.

About the Collecting Friends Blog

Hello! And welcome to the ANA’s blog series, “Collecting Friends.”

We decided to approach this much like a conversation between friends. One of us starts with a topic, then the other responds. Simple as that. Along those lines, we’ll keep the tone conversational as much as possible. 

We both write about coins professionally, and will keep our relative style guides in our writing. For Dennis, Publisher at Whitman Publishing, that means capitalizing “Proof” and italicizing Red Book and never saying anything bad about Ken Bressett, who’s awesome anyway. 

For Steve, who’s written with Coin World for 15 years, it means Winged Liberty Head dime instead of “Mercury” dime, and similar nuances and oddities. And, it means writing A Guide Book of United States Coins (better known as the “Red Book”). 

Both of us started collecting when we were little, introduced to coins by a chance encounter with an old coin that sparked our curiosity. One of Steve’s interests is coin valuation, and he gravitates towards the intersection of art and coins. Dennis enjoys medals and world coins, and studying modern U.S. coins in the context of older series, what came before.

We met in 2012 at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Philadelphia at an event hosted by the Austrian Mint where there was both a Ben Franklin and a Betsy Ross impersonator. We’ve become great friends in the past decade. We even were appointed together to sit on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee starting in 2016, but Steve resigned soon after he was appointed to accept a full-time job at the Treasury Department while Dennis was re-appointed in 2020.

We taught a course together on numismatic publishing and writing a few years ago at the Summer Seminar, and while life has gotten in the way of us teaching another class, we jumped at our friend Caleb’s suggestion that we write a column. We hope you enjoy it! 

About the American Numismatic Association

The American Numismatic Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and encouraging people to study and collect coins and related items. The Association serves collectors, the general public, and academic communities with an interest in numismatics.

The ANA helps all people discover and explore the world of money through its vast array of educational programs including its museum, library, publications, conventions and numismatic seminars.