MORE ON GLENN SMEDLEY

I enjoyed the memories of Glenn Smedley. He came into ANA Headquarters every day as a retired volunteer while I was on staff at ANACS, and was always a pleasure to be around. He had a wealth of knowledge about what was then the old days at the ANA. I fear that that knowledge of the past is now forgotten.

He did not drive, explaining to me that he had grown up in Chicago which had such a good public transportation system that he had never needed to. I believe that he worked for the Edison company in Chicago for most of his life. A few times when we were both going to an ANA Convention I would give him a ride to the airport. He had taken on the Editorship of the Numismatist as an Assistant to Elston Bradfield in Chicago, and moved to Colorado Springs to help transition the Editorship to the then new Headquarters building. This came at the cost of some personal sacrifice, as he had difficulty breathing at the altitude and wore a small portable oxygen tank with the breathing tubes you see in the video. When I would pick him up to go to the airport he would leave it behind, saying he did not need it at sea level. He never complained about needing it.

I happen to own a set of three mahogany bookcases he had custom built to hold his (then, as Editor) complete set of The Numismatist. He moved them to Colorado, sold them to me when he downsized his apartment, and I moved them back to Chicago in 1984 before returning to Colorado in 2013. Perhaps I will leave them in my will to the Editorial Department.

Glenn B. Smedley, one of the most respected numismatists on the scene, in September 1959 contributed an article to The Numismatist, "Books to Buy or Borrow," which told of a list handed to him by Richard S. Yeoman, editor of A Guide Book of United States Coins, plus some additions, bringing the list up to include the following, which were considered to be the basic numismatic library:

• Early Coins of America (Sylvester S. Crosby 1875),
• The State Coinages of New England (Miller and Ryder 1920),
• The United States Half Cents (Ebenezer Gilbert 1916),
• Early American Cents, 1793-1814 (Dr. William H. Sheldon 1949),
• United States Copper Cents, 1814-1857 (Howard R. Newcomb 1944),
• United States Half Dimes (Dr. W. Valentine 1931),
• United States Dimes (Abe Kosoff 1945),
• Type Table of U.S. Dollars, Half Dollars and Quarter Dollars (John W. Haseltine 1881),
• Early Quarter Dollars (A.W. Browning 1925),
• A Register of Half Dollar Die Varieties (M.L. Beistle 1929),
• U.S. Pattern, Trial and Experimental Pieces (E.H. Adams and William Woodin 1913),
• Private Gold Coinage of California (Edgar H. Adams 1913),
• California Gold Quarters, Halves and Dollars (Ed. M. Lee 1932),
• Silver and Gold Coins of the World (J.W. Scott 1913),
• Copper and Nickel Coins of the World (J.W. Scott 1913),
• A Guide Book of United States Coins (R.S. Yeoman 1959),
• A Catalog of Modern World Coins (R.S. Yeoman 1957),
• Catalog of the Jenks Collection (Henry Chapman 1921),
• Historia Numorum (Barclay V. Head 1887),
• The Types of Greek Coins (Percy Gardner 1883),
• Roman Coins (Harold Mattingly 1928),
• A History of Banking in the United States (John Jay Knox 1900),
• History of American Coinage (David K. Watson 1899),
• History of Currency in the United States (A. Barton Hepburn 1915),
• Fractional Money (Neil Carothers 1930),
• U.S. Paper Money—Old Series (Dr. F.A. Limpert 1948),
• Paper Money of the United States (Robert Friedberg 1955),
• Dictionary of Numismatic Names (Albert R. Frey 1917), and
• Numismatic Bibliography (Phares O. Sigler 1951).

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
VIDEO: GLENN B. SMEDLEY INTERVIEW (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n19a11.html)

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