John Lupia submitted the following information from his Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatic Biographies for this
week's installment of his series. Thanks! As always, this is an excerpt with the full article and bibliography available online. This week's
subject is world coin dealer Otto Oddehon of St. Louis, mentioned last week as the creator of a medal celebrating the sesquicentennial of the
Louisiana Purchase. -Editor
Otto Oddehon (1878-1959), was born December 31, 1878 in Agerum, Blekinge, Sweden. His parents moved to America in 1880 or 1881 as both
dates are found in records. He is listed in the Joplin City Directory of 1913 working as a canvasser. According to the U. S. Census of 1920 he worked
as a lumberjack at Franklin, Missouri.
In January 1923 he ran a coin advertisement in Popular Mechanics giving his address as Dallas Texas. He ran advertisements each year from 1936 to
1938 in April or May in the Kansas City Star, (Sunday, April 24, 1938) looking for work as a farm hand. In some respects he is reminiscent of
a character straight out of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. He seems to have never married, worked at various menial jobs, and lived in
various places as a lodger.
Oddehon was a mail order coin dealer specializing in foreign coins. He advertised in The Numismatist, Hobbies, Popular Science, Popular
Mechanics, and Numismatic Scrapbook. The commemorative token he had struck for the 150th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase
distinguished him, otherwise he remains fairly obscure to history.
He published several insightful comments in The Numismatist showing a keen sense for numismatics, and business. Noteworthy was his
suggestion to lower the annual subscription and have advertisers pay for the publication with the subscription dues used to advance the organization.
Also he suggested, in 1938, that an archive of coins in various grades be established as an authority control - an idea that evolved thirty-two years
later into Photograde.
He ran his first advertisement selling foreign coins in The Numismatist in April 1927. According to the U. S. Census of 1930 he worked as a
numismatist on his own account. He seems to have moved between Kansas City and Unionville, Missouri during the late 1930's. He moved from Kansas
City, Missouri to Overland, Missouri in 1942. He then moved to Saint Louis in 1944.
He died on August 16, 1959. He is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Bel-Nor, Missouri.
The Newman Numismatic Portal has digitized various invoices of coin purchases by Oddehon from Burdette G. Johnson of St. Louis Stamp & Coin from
1940 to 1943.
To read the complete article, see:
ODDEHON, OTTO
(https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/www/numismaticmall-com/oddehon-otto)
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE HIBLER-KAPPEN SO-CALLED DOLLARS BOOK (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n40a18.html)
THE BOOK BAZARRE
OVER 500 NUMISMATIC TITLES: Wizard Coin Supply has over 500 numismatic titles in stock, competitively discounted, and available for immediate
shipment. See our selection at www.WizardCoinSupply.com.
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization
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To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor
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