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’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.
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.”
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.
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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!
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.