CLEMENT V. SCHETTINO (1953-2020)

It was with great sadness that I learned on Thanksgiving Day the passing of my dear friend, numismatist Clem Schettino. With so many great memories of our adventures together, I struggled, wondering how I could even begin to explain the impact Clem had on my, and so many others', lives. And as it sometimes happens, and only with the truly great friends, your mourning is interrupted by laughter when you find yourself reliving the friendship from the very beginning...

Lynn and Clem Schettino

We were at the Cincinnati EAC Convention and those who attended will remember the "interesting" hotel in Kentucky (not Ohio) designed like a castle. The party didn't end after the Thursday night EAC reception, and Clem was on a mission to drain every last drop of leftover beer from the kegs. Clem scoured the near-empty room for anything, and anyone, to save the beer. He filled five pitchers to the absolute brim and handed me, a 15-year-old kid, two. We tiptoed through the hotel halls trying not to draw attention but laughing way too hard and certainly too loud as Clem tried to balance three full pitchers of beer. Then, a security guard wisely informed us that I, a minor, probably shouldn't be helping appropriate alcohol. Undeterred, Clem continued onward, now sloppily carrying all five pitchers, sloshing beer all over himself as he pushed forward. Lesser men would have made two trips, but Clem began belting 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' at the top of his lungs in defiance, arriving at his hotel room a hero to the small, but thirsty, after-convention party he'd invited. That was the beginning of our great friendship, but the end of kegs at EAC Conventions.

Clem was a founding member of C4, at that time specializing in New Jersey Coppers, Fugios, and several other colonial series. Many people may not know that during the first C4 Convention auction, the Fugio collection (auctioned after John Griffee's NJ coppers) was Clem's.

In the years to follow, Clem became a pioneer in the study of British and Irish counterfeit halfpennies and farthings, undertaking early serious work on creating a collecting system for these understudied pieces. Anyone who understood Clem as a collector realized that when he started researching a new series, he went ALL the way. Clem's larger-than-life personality belied a highly organized collector with endless enthusiasm for research. During his study, Clem amassed one of the finest collections ever assembled, discovering and obtaining many new and unique varieties, and acquired thousands of pieces.

Clem had three standout priorities in his life, coins coming in a distant third. First and foremost, he was a dedicated family man. He absolutely adored his loving wife Lynn and his sons Alex and Angelo, and they were often by his side at coin shows across the country. Second to that, his friends and the coin community.

Clem truly loved coin conventions and was always excited and happy before a show, knowing he would soon be right in his element. If you needed him afterward, you knew to check the hotel lounge, where he would be celebrating the day, taking upon himself the responsibility to ensure everyone around him was having the best time they could possibly have. Clem loved life and had a way of bringing a smile to everyone's face, telling jokes (some even at his own expense), stories, or reassuring someone for the second time in twenty minutes that he loved the new coin they just bought. Nobody cared more about his fellow collectors than Clem, and he is responsible for happily mentoring and inspiring many C4 members active today. He was generous and delighted to share his knowledge and welcomed anyone that shared the passion - even me as a lost teenager that night at the Cincinnati EAC Convention when he readily adopted me into a community that has since defined my life. Clem was my loyal and passionate friend who never had a bad thing to say about anyone he cared about which is one of the best qualities I learned from him.

Clem left us with many stories I would love to include here, which would take up hundreds of pages, and all of them are worthy of print. But, almost all C4 and EAC members have a story, or a dozen, to tell because everyone who spent time with Clem emerged a better collector and a better person. His name and memory will never be forgotten in the collecting circles, and I look forward to future nights at the lounge after a long day on the bourse, going around the room, sharing stories and memories of Clem for many years to come. Rest in peace my friend, you are remembered dearly for taking coins and your dedication to your family seriously, but wisely not taking life too seriously, enjoying all it had to offer and thus, shaping all of us for the better.

1774 double struck counterfeit British 1/2d

Hello, I am a collector and part time dealer of Early American Coins. I live in Massachusetts, just north of Boston in what's called "the north shore". I deal primarily with Colonial and Early US coins. Especially the state issues from 1785 to 1788. I collect the coins of New Jersey, dated 1786 to 1788. I have been collecting this series for well over a decade and still maintain my collection. Because of the fact that these have become rather scarce and quite expensive and I'm now finding it very difficult to add new varieties or even make upgrades, I have therefore been gravitating toward collecting and researching Contemporary Counterfeit British Halfpence and Farthings, and to some degree counterfeit Irish as well. These coins circulated extensively here during our colonial period.

To read the complete article, see:
Clement V. Schettino DBA CVS Rare Coins (http://www.geocities.ws/copperclem/)

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