Rest In Peace MFH

Very sad news. Terribly sad news.

RIP Mike, you were a class act my friend. God Bless You...you will be missed by many.

Mike pinged me on the 7th saying he was boarding the dogs, and checking himself into the hospital for what he thought was pneumonia. I've been nervous ever since. He PMed me again on the 14th thanking me for all the good thoughts.

I never met Mike in person, and that's clearly my loss. He encouraged me many times to come to the FUN with him, but work, life, etc. kept getting in the way. We shared a deep love for Barber coinage, and he was truly a wealth of knowledge on that subject. I will miss his PMs. But more than that, he was just such a nice guy.

A few years ago I lost two of my brothers within 28 days. That was a rough month. Mike heard of this and somehow found my number, and called me. I was very sad, but that one call meant the world to me, and I told Mike that. It really turned me around. I will forever be thankful for that phone call.

Mike Hayes, you were the best. Rest in peace, friend. :'(

Dave

The past few weeks have been so heavy and hard as Mike began a fast slide. Mike was one of my best friends in the numismatic world. We would walk the floor together at shows, lot view for hours, share a meal and lots of drinks, and often roomed together at shows. I first met Mike in the summer of 2012, in Colorado Springs during Summer Seminar, as Mike was helping Glenn Holsonbake at his table at the inter-session coin show. As was normal for mike, he also had some coins of his out for sale, and I bought a sweet 1921 Peace Dollar for my type set from him.

After several months, we became close friends, over the past few years sharing coin related texts daily. I would visit him in Naples, helping him by photographing his coins for him. As a college student who transplanted alone to Florida, it was nice to have such a reliable and generous friend. Mike lived alone in Naples and would invite me to Thanksgiving, Easter when I didn't go home to Maine, and I'd drive down from Orlando and we had a great time. He had two dogs, Max and Ginja and loved them dearly. He loved Jameson Whiskey, calling it mothers milk.

One of my favorite things about mike was his passion as a collector and love for his collection. One of my favorite things was spending hours, several weekends a year, going through his coins with him. I'd mention one coin in particular that stood out and he'd go, without looking at it, "oh yeah! That's a nice coin. I occasionally buy a nice one." He had ambitious goals and could tell you what grades and examples he had for any denomination of the barber series. He also had an interest in seated material, and collected superb coins of the years 1889, 1890, 1917 and 1921 for the birth years of his parents and grandparents. He loved coins with Blue rim toning. Mike was truly a collector, he never bought a coin just to flip it and he was never afraid to take a bath when he wanted to change his focus a little. I remember mailing him a bar of soap after one particularly rough Heritage sale of his.

Mike'a sense of humor was exuberant, we would go back and forth with one another. As an inside joke between him and a couple other YNs, we would refer to him as Chief. Mike was a mentor and asset to so many YNs and other collectors, always willing to go above and beyond to teach others. Mike always used to tell me that he was counting on me to take care of him once I was "out of med school and making good money."

My heart breaks, it's hard to imagine buying a coin in the future and not texting him a picture of it. I'll miss him dearly. Having a Jameson on ice for you tonight, my friend.