JOHN W. MCCLOSKEY, 1938-2018

We were sorry to learn this week of the passing of author and researcher John W. McCloskey of Dayton, OH. Thanks to Tom Mulvaney of Lexington, KY for passing this along. The March 2009 issue of the Gobrecht Journal included an autobiography of McCloskey (with edits by Len Augsburger and Bill Bugert). McCloskey was then the president of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club. The complete issue is available on the Newman Numismatic Portal and an excerpt is republished here with permission of LSCC. -Editor

John William McCloskey was born on March 2, 1938 in Dayton, Ohio, the oldest of three sons, to John Henry McCloskey and Helen Rose (Kinzig) McCloskey. John's father was the sixth of nine children in his family and was only thirteen when his father, John Thomas McCloskey, died in 1922. He appears in the 1930 census, as one of six children, ages 1 4 through 27, living at home with their widowed mother. John Henry is listed as a "toolmaker" working at an electric refrigerator plant, and each of his five siblings also held jobs to help support the family, all of which the census taker recorded. While single mothers had the worst lot of anyone during the depression, John Henry's mother was surrounded by productive children. In 1935 John Henry and his bride rented a house at 209 South Findley Street in East Dayton while he was employed as a tool maker, working for the ACME Pattern Tool Company. The economy relapsed in 1937 before gathering steam again during the war years. The family purchased a small home at 335 West Siebenthaler Avenue in North Dayton in 1940, and later moved to a larger residence at 132 Valley View Dr. in November 1945.

The family lived at the Valley View address for 33 years and it was here that young John spent his early years and developed a budding interest in coinage. He had a paper route at thirteen and spent his summers on a golf course as a caddy at Miami Valley Golf Club. This experience instilled in him a love for the outdoors and ended with him serving as a caddy for Ted Kroll during the PGA Championship when it was held at Miami Valley Golf Club during August 1957. Two years later, another young Ohioan, Jack Nicklaus, won the first of his U.S. Amateur titles, before taking the PGA himself in 1963. John was fascinated watching how the game was played at the highest level and this experience created his passion for golf that continues to this day. He has played well enough over the years to record five holes-in-one, four of them since the age of 60.

John attended Chaminade High School, a private school in Dayton, and graduated third in his class in June 1956. He then entered the University of Dayton and received a BS degree with a nnajor in Mathematics in June 1960. He married Norma Jean Monnin on August 6, 1960 and the young couple set out for Michigan State University where John had received a Graduate Assistantship in the Department of Statistics. He received his Masters Degree in 1962 and his PhD in 1965, both degrees in Statistics from Michigan State University. His PhD thesis involved a computer simulation of a statistical model at a time when computers were just beginning to be utilized in academic research.

After considering several options John returned to his home town and accepted a position on the faculty of the University of Dayton as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. While John was establishing himself in his academic career he and his wife Norma had four children, Susan Ann in 1963, John Thomas in 1965, Lisa Renee in 1966 and Mark William in 1972. As he advanced professionally John was appointed to a four year term as Chairman of the Mathematics Department at the University of Dayton on July 1 , 1976. Recognizing that he would be spending long hours performing his new academic duties, John felt he needed some extra time to prepare himself for the demands of his new responsibilities. He therefore signed up for a Sierra Club camping trip to the Uinta Mountains in Utah during June 1976 to think about his future in a peaceful and inspiring location. This was an important decision because the trip provided him with such a rewarding experience that he returned to the western mountains many times before the beginning of a new academic year.

John served twelve years as Chairman of the Mathematics Department, completing his third four year term on June 30, 1988. At this point he decided to test his skills in a physical challenge to celebrate completing his responsibilities as a departmental Chairman. He had always found inspiration on his trips to the mountains and decided to attempt a difficult physical challenge; he would try to climb a 14,000 foot peak. He studied his maps, read the climbing books and identified a peak in Colorado that he thought he could successfully climb. This turned out to be Redcloud Peak in Southwestern Colorado at 14,034 feet.

After several months of training he flew to Colorado during July 1988 and set up camp near the trailhead to Redcloud Peak. He had climbed in the mountains many times before but had never tried to climb one of the high peaks. But with a clearly defined goal and by refusing to be denied when challenged, he reached the peak after a long five hour climb and was over-joyed by his success and the beautiful landscape that surrounded him. It was such an exhilarating experience that he knew he would have to try it again!

... This success led to many other trips to the western mountains over the next twenty years where he has successfully climbed 31 peaks over 14,000 feet, all of them since the age of 50.

In the fall of 1988 John returned to his position as Full Professor in the Mathematics Department at the University of Dayton and resumed his teaching and research duties. His professional work involved mathematical modeling where a mathematical structure is imposed upon a physical phenomenon to obtain information that would not be apparent by simply observing data. John served an additional thirteen years on the faculty at the University of Dayton before retiring in June 2001 after 36 years of service.

John's collecting interests began in 1948 at the age of ten with a jar of old Lincoln cents that his father kept in a desk drawer in the den. He would dump the coins out on a table and line them up by date to see how many he could find. As his father added coins to the jar he would try to fill the holes in the date sequence for the series. Before long his father bought him a coin folder for Lincoln cents and he began searching through change to fill in the missing dates. Thousands of children John's age were doing precisely the same thing, as a rising coin boom which continued unabated through the mid-1960s began to take shape. The Redbook first appeared in 1946, while periodicals such as the Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine became thicker every month. By the late 1950s the need for a weekly coin magazine was evident, and Coin World was launched in 1960. Much of the commercial activity was focused on modern issues, BU rolls of recent vintage or supposedly rare items like 1950-D Jefferson nickels. John took a different path, and early on developed a taste for the older, more esoteric issues.

At 13 John would take a trolley bus to downtown Dayton and purchase nice circulated Lincoln cents, Buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes. At 15 he would ride twenty miles on his bicycle with a friend to visit Whitt's Hobby Shop in Franklin, Ohio. While there he would purchase Barber dimes for 35 cents. Barber quarters for 65 cents and Barber half dollars for $1.25. He began collecting Seated dimes in 1955 because they represented the next oldest dime series and many of them could be purchased at reasonable prices in nice circulated grades. In doing so, John landed in virgin territory. The first American collectors tended to focus on Colonial and early copper issues; later, in the first half of the twentieth century, the second wave of collectors began pursuing early silver varieties with the three Bs - Browning, Beistle and Bolender who had taken the lead in cataloguing Bust coinage. Seated coinage remained largely unexplored.

While initially collecting Seated coinage John was attracted to the sharp lines and fine detail in the design that was lacking on many of the 20th century coins. But collecting this series soon presented some concerns because some of the dates were very rare and nobody seemed to know how to authenticate individual specimens. One particular incident with a rare date made a lasting impression on him. In 1964 he visited a coin shop in Lincoln, Nebraska and was shown a nice original 1866 dime in a VG grade. This was a very rare date with a low mintage and he had never even seen one before. The purchase price was $12 and he was thrilled to have the opportunity to buy an example of this rare Civil War issue. But upon returning home he compared this coin with the 1866-S dime in his collection and found that he could not find any distinguishing features between the two pieces. The mintmark on his 1866-S dime was very weak and he feared that the San Francisco mintmark might have been completely worn off the VG coin that he had just purchased as an 1866 dime. Only several years later did he learn of the differences in date position between 1866 and 1866-S dimes that could confirm the mint of origin for coins of this date.

John began his term as President of LSCC in September 1975 and has published three issues of the Gobrecht Journal each year for the past 34 years. His numismatic skills were demonstrated very early when he published an article in Issue #2 describing the new Type II reverse first used on Seated dimes in 1876. This article included a list of the dates for which both Type I and Type II coins were known. In Issue #3 he published an article that listed the reeding count for all dates in the Seated dime series. He then showed that the rare Carson City and New Orleans dates could be authenticated by the number of reeds along their edge. In Issue #5 he published articles on the 1841-0 Transitional dimes, the three mintmark sizes for 1862-S half dollars and reeding counts for Seated half dimes. In Issue #6 he described die characteristics that distinguish 1866 and 1866-S dimes, described and illustrated a new reverse hub for quarters in 1861 and described the 1840-O Transitional half dime. He continued to show his extensive knowledge of Seated coinage over the years by publishing a steady stream of ground breaking articles on all Seated denominations from half dimes to Trade Dollars.

One of the most important decisions that John made in the early years was to publish collective volumes of the material that had appeared in earlier issues of the journal. During the late 1970s new club members would request copies of back issues from previous years. After the club ran out of back issues there were discussions on how to meet a growing demand for this material. The simplest approach would have been to reprint extra copies of the earlier issues as they were originally printed. However, John felt that this was not the best approach because the ads were no longer current and specific articles would be difficult to find in individual booklets. He felt that a better way to preserve the material published by the club would be to reprint the articles that had been published over a five year span in a single collective volume. He then decided to reorder the articles by denomination and date so that all of the material on a particular topic would appear together in the new volume. This required a massive restructuring of the published material but a 367 page manuscript eventually emerged containing the articles in the first 18 issues of the journal. This manuscript was published in 1981 and became Collective Volume Number One. It was so successful that three more collective volumes were published, each containing the restructured articles over a five year span. A new Collective Volume Number Five covering the years from 1995 to 2000 is about ready for publication.

In recent years John has used his knowledge of gold coinage to prepare a number of articles that run across all denominations from copper half cents to gold double eagles. In Issue #74 he described and illustrated five date punches of varying size for the year 1842 that were used to prepare the dates on 10 denominations of coinage from copper half cents to gold eagles. His analysis showed that the Small Date and Large Date varieties for Seated quarters and half dollars were the result of nothing more than a switch from one available date punch to another while preparing the coinage dies. In Issue #100 he described the seven date punches of varying size for the year 1856 that were used to prepare the dates on 13 denominations of coinage from copper half cents to gold double eagles, only this time there was an interesting pattern of slanted and upright 5s used on the date punches. In Issue #84 he illustrated three mintmark sizes that were used on San Francisco dies for 10 denominations of coinage from the dime to the gold double eagle during the No Motto era from 1854 to 1866. This analysis showed that the same mintmark punch was used on many different denominations of coinage during these years.

From Seated to Bust coinage, and later to gold, John has exhibited an insatiable curiosity coupled with careful and systematic analyses in order to produce standard works which will endure for the foreseeable future. The respect he has won from his peers is considerable, yet easily forgotten. Giants like Harry Bass, who knew gold varieties as well as anyone, are no longer on the scene to attest to John's acumen. Likewise, Kam Ahwash, who passed away so prematurely, surely had stories relating to how he and John pushed each other to continually dig deeper into the production of Seated coinage. As is demonstrated by John's Bust dime and half dime books, truly outstanding numismatic research is often a group effort, achieved by a number of high-performing individuals who are willing to collaborate as a team, share findings, and consistently challenge both old and new findings. John has exercised this ability within LSCC as well, and today serves as a sounding board and voice of reason to all those interested in researching Gobrecht's silver coinage from the 19th century. We are quite blessed with his presence, and hope that he continues to scale his mountains, numismatic and otherise, well into the future.

I first met John McCloskey (in person) at the 1985 Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS) show in Minneapolis in 1985. This was my first larger coin show, having “gotten back” into collecting in 1983. I was a member of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) which John McCloskey had co-founded along with Kamal Awash. John was the long time President and Editor of the club's Gobrecht Journal. By long time I mean around four decades! John was also a founding member of the John Reich Collectors Society (JRCS) and a long-time Vice President of this club. I've been a member of both clubs for over 30 years now.

I wrote a letter to John prior to the 1985 CSNS Convention offering to pick him up at the airport and drop him off at his hotel if he would come to my house and look at my collection and give me feedback. I'd been collecting for two years or so and wanted feedback on the coins I'd purchased so far for my collection. Much to my surprise and pleasure John agreed to do this.

I picked John up and we drove to my house. I had my Seated Dollar collection home from the bank, mostly consisting of XF-AU coins. At one point John asked me if I used a glass when looking at my coins. I remember saying that I did not, should I? He said yes, but he added that he hadn't noted any mistakes on the coins he had seen so far. I guess that I had “young eyes” at the time with very good eyesight up close. Or was lucky. At the end, John asked me which coin did I think was his favorite. It turned out it was an 1864 Dollar in VG-Fine, a well circulated Civil War Date.

At the show, John took me around and introduced me to a number of collectors. I remembering John introducing me among others to Mr. 1873, Harry X Boosel and to Russ Logan, an author and later founder of JRCS. Over the years I saw and talked with John at the major shows.

John was a co-author of Early United States Dimes 1796 – 1837 (1984, John Reich Collectors Society) with David J. Davis, Russell J. Logan, Allen F. Lovejoy, and William L. Subjack. John was also a co-author of Federal Half Dimes 1792-1837 (1998, John Reich Collectors Society) with Russel J. Logan. This is still a widely used reference for those collecting the early half dimes 1792-1837. John wrote untold articles on early silver and gold for the John Reich Journal and for the Gobrecht Journal.

The hobby will miss John.

John McCloskey literally was the Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) for nearly 40 years. He served as president, edited the Gobrecht Journal, and personally supplied a good fraction of the content of that publication. McCloskey went an inch wide and a mile deep – so much so that he was not so well-known outside of the LSCC and the John Reich Collectors Society (JRCS). Indeed, when ANA Governor Michael Fey nominated McCloskey for a well-deserved ANA award, it was only then discovered that McCloskey was not an ANA member and unfortunately not eligible. McCloskey had been receiving the LSCC club copy of The Numismatist for years and never bothered to personally subscribe!

The real legacy of John, however, is the rigor with which he approached die variety attribution of the 19th century U.S. silver and gold coinage. John co-authored the standard references for bust dime and half dime varieties, and this tradition lives on through the work of numismatic authors such as Gerry Fortin, Bill Bugert, and others, whose collecting careers and research instincts were influenced by John.

McCloskey was also an expert on Classic Head U.S. gold, but unfortunately did not live to see his work in this area published. Fortunately his manuscript has been shared other experts, and it is hoped that this research will someday be widely available. I last saw John at the LSCC general meeting at the 2018 Philadelphia ANA, and am grateful that his wife, Norma, was able to bring him to this event.

It seems like 2018 was a particularly sad year for numismatics, with the passing of so many great figures. The latest loss is John McCloskey, and he was indeed a key player in the study of United States silver and gold coinage of the 19th Century. Though he was not the first editor of The Gobrecht Journal, he held this position for so many years that it is indelibly associated with his name. He also served as the Liberty Seated Collectors Club president for decades, and its survival for over 40 years is due mostly to his dedication and persistence. My mother told me that when FDR died she couldn't believe that anyone else could ever be president of the USA, and this is how so many felt about John and the club.

John was very instrumental in helping me to achieve success as a numismatic writer, and I became a prolific contributor to TGJ during the 1980s. I searched for an actual photo of the two of us together, but other than group shots all I could find is the attached news clipping from a 1983 issue of Coin World. It shows us during the LSCC annual meeting at that year's ANA Convention in San Diego. I'll always remember him as a friend and as a figure in the hobby who was all too modest for someone of his many accomplishments.

To read Mccloskey's online obituary in the Dayton Daily News, see:
McCLOSKEY, John (https://www.daytondailynews.com/classifieds/obituaries-announcements/mccloskey-john/L1YCljNiLfgvk6taB8Y6YI/)