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Do you consider Joseph Mickley the 1st American numismatist and The Father of American Numismatics?

ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,116 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited August 19, 2017 2:52PM in U.S. Coin Forum

I recently came across these 2 profiles of Joseph Jacob Mickley, founder and first president of the Numismatic Society of Philadelphia, who has been called the first American numismatist and "The Father of American Numismatics".

Do you agree? If not, who do you consider the first American numismatist or Father of American Numismatics?

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Comments

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Topstuf was ahead of him.

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Nope.

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,116 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Who would you consider to be the first @RogerB?

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No. Mickley was an interesting, cultivated man. I simply do not understand why people think titles like 'The Father of American Numismatics' are deemed important.

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Here are a few, although many are kind of first/second generation, such as William Packer:

    John Allen
    Mathew Stickney
    W. I. Appleton
    C. F. Adams
    Henry M. Brooks
    T.A. Andrews
    George F. Seavey
    Wm. E. DuBois
    Jacob Giles Morris
    James Hall
    Adam Eckfeldt
    William F. Packer

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No. That is an honorarium... as such, it is political and virtually meaningless except to those involved. There were coin collectors before him....it has been a hobby that came to America with the immigrants. Such titles are the province of elitists and serve as decorations, much like the medals seen on the military jackets of banana republic officers. Cheers, RickO

  • NysotoNysoto Posts: 3,818 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Eagle That Is Forgotten: Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere, Founding Father of American Numismatics. Dr. Joel J. Orosz, 1988.

    Du Simitiere (1737-1784):

    Collector of coins, paper money, numismatic literature, medals (including Robert Scot's rare Virginia Happy While United medal)
    Artist
    Numismatic researcher and author
    Owner of the first American museum "The American Museum"
    Designer of Delaware and New Jersey seals, influence on Virginia seal
    Artistic consultant on first committee of the Great Seal, first to recommend E Pluribus Unum
    Designer of medals, influence on Washington pieces

    Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,629 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I thought Du Simitiere as well. Had he not died penniless his work might have been better documented.

    Eckfeldt, as the originator of the Mint Cabinet, has to be up there.

    In terms of numismatics as we experience it today, Max Mehl or David Hall would be good choices.

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 20, 2017 9:20PM

    In terms of 'the numismatics we experience today', you might choose Farran Zerbe as the father of us all. He was the great early 20th Century proselytizer of coin collecting as a popular hobby. Wayte Raymond and R.S. Yeoman are strong candidates too, just a bit later than Zerbe. These people brought coin collecting to the masses.

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    "In terms of 'the numismatics we experience today', you might choose Farran Zerbe as the father of us all. He was the great early 20th Century proselytizer of coin collecting as a popular hobby."

    He was also charlatan, crook, incompetent and considered untrustworthy by the Treasury Dept. Is that why ANA named it's top award after Zerbe and refuses to change the name to someone of unquestioned integrity, such as Eric Newman?

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 21, 2017 7:59AM

    All of which I was aware of. Mr. Zerbe' emphasis on the making money side of coins is probably a primary reason why he is such a strong candidate for father of modern numismatics.

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    "Making money from coins" is not numismatics.

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    'Making money from coins' is the principal motive of 85% of the people associated with the hobby. Very few scholards or purists, I'm afraid.

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