EDWARD LOUIS DENCE (1917-2021)

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V24 2021 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 24, Number 17, April 25, 2021, Article 6

I was sorry to learn this week that Ed Dence of Philadelphia passed away at the age of 103. Ed was a pioneering collector of charge coins and author of the first catalogs about them. -Editor

For 103 years, Edward Louis Dence lived with an unmatched talent for storytelling, a knack for playful teasing, and an outpouring of total generosity for everyone around him. In the best of times, he was a handful - but his aptitude for humor was incomparable, and knowing him left everyone inarguably better than they'd been before (albeit, a bit confused about whether the "German" he'd more frequently started speaking in his later years was accurate or not). Ed lived in Philadelphia for the entirety of his life, and contributed a history to the city that wouldn't have otherwise existed without him. He proudly served in the US Navy during World War II aboard the USS Mona Island. After the war he had several jobs, retiring from NFL Films in 1983. He was a longtime member of J H Brown Lodge of the Masons, and a "Hillbilly" Shriner.

Edward passed away quietly at home on April 19, 2021. He is predeceased by his beloved wife of 57 years, Bertha Dence (nee MacNew) and his son, Richard L Dence. He is survived by his caring sons Edward Dence (Joyce), and Steven Dence (Karen), and his loving daughters Karen Adgalane (James), Linda Graeff (Thomas), Susan Flythe (Thomas), and Nancy LaMartine (Gerald); also 19 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren, and 5 great-great-grandchildren. He will be laid to rest with his wife Bertha in a private ceremony in the Memorial Garden at Emmanuel Resurrection Episcopal Church, Holmesburg

Above are images of some charge coins, the predecessors of department store credit cards. I built a large collection of these over the years. Ed published several editions of what became his Visual Guide to Store Charge Coins. I wrote the index for one of the early editions.

These were handmade affairs, comprising sets of photocopied or hand-drawn images of charge coins, organized by country, state, city, and issuer. Each was assigned a catalog number according to a system similar to U.S. transportation, Civil War and other tokens. -Editor

To read the complete article, see:
Edward Louis Dence (http://www.legacy.com/funerals/mccaffertysweeney-philadelphia/obituary.aspx?n=edward-louis-dence&pid=198388049)

Pete Smith passed along this image of 24 of the 27 different plastic Ed Dence personal tokens in his collection. Thanks! -Editor