GARY ODDIE (1965-2025)

It is with great sadness that collectors learned of the death of Gary Oddie, managing to just cross the 60-year mark before succumbing after a long, valiant battle with cancer. Gary was well-known in the UK, giving countless talks and writing what seemed like a major article or blog post every week. Gary authored or edited three books on the tokens and such of the two counties he lived in, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. The first, in 2011, was Bedfordshire Seventeenth Century Tokens, by John Gaunt, greatly expanded by Gary, which was an in-depth look at the 100 or so issuers of 17th century tokens in that county, including numerous previously unknown varieties, with much research into the lives of the token issuers, their trades, and the economics of the time which required the issuance of tens of thousands of different tokens across England. This was the first in a series authored by Token Corresponding Society members which re-appraise Williamson's 17th century token reference book, county by county, illustrated with the best examples available and with up to date research.

Gary then tackled the rest of the token issues for Bedfordshire in his 2023 book Bedfordshire Tokens, Tickets, Checks, and Passes; this included over 400 different pieces from lead tokens of the 15th century through the handful of 18th century Conder token issues of the country, to pieces made in the 20th and 21st centuries. The following year saw the publication of Cambridgeshire Seventeenth Century Tokens, an in-depth look at these issues, again with large amounts of background detail about the issuers. Gary also studiously catalogued the 300+ engraved tokens in the Timothy Millett collection featured in the 2022 book Tokens of Love, Loss and Disrespect 1700-1850, by Sarah Lloyd and Timothy Millett. Gary freely shared information with fellow collectors and researchers, and while he only authored a few books on his own, his research was an integral part of dozens of other books published in the last three decades.

 

But it was in shorter form that Gary really found his calling, authoring numerous articles for The Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, The Conder Token Collector's Journal, and a number of other British numismatic publications. But as most of his research was done in the digital age, the bulk of his work was not for print, but for the British Numismatic Society where he wrote or co-wrote over 160 different blog posts. Most of these blogs could have easily been stand-alone articles in any prestigious numismatic journal, with excellent research and illustrations, and some of them could have been numismatic books in their own right, such as his five-part series on the die varieties of James I shillings, co-authored with the late Robert Thompson. Gary's blogs account for nearly a quarter of all those hosted by the British Numismatic Society, and they can all be accessed for free at https://britnumsoc.blog/

The breadth and depth of his writings shows a unique and inquisitive mind at work. It is perhaps not surprising that in his "real job" Gary made use of that same thirst for knowledge. After receiving a physics degree at York University, Gary did post-doc research at Cranfield Institute of Technology, which included research for industrial clients in sectors as diverse as clean water, wastewater, automotive, petrochemical, flowmetering, and aviation. This was followed by 24 years at Schlumberger Cambridge Research, where he was scientific advisor in oilfield fluid mechanics. Due to his health issues, Gary took early retirement in 2020, which allowed him to concentrate on his numismatic research, which was conducted with the same sense of wonder and diligent attention to detail that marked his scientific career.

Like many of us, Gary was bitten early by the numismatic bug, receiving the first coin for his collection at age 8. At 14 years old someone asked him how many shillings he thought there were out there. Gary didn't know the answer but said he would find out, and for the rest of his life continued adding coins, counterfeits, tokens, tickets, passes, and anything else that bore a one shilling denomination to his collection, no matter where in the world it was issued. While I don't recall the exact count the last time Gary mentioned it, it was north of 30,000 different pieces – and more were still being added!

Gary was one of the bedrocks of the Token Corresponding Society's annual Token Congress, which I have written about in the past for The E-Sylum. He organized four of them, and spoke at most, often giving more than one presentation over the two-day event, usually on widely diverse topics. Gary's final talk, at last year's Token Congress concerned the 1616 Sommer Islands coinage – which, of course, contained a shilling denomination. Gary had finally added an example of this rare and expensive issue to his collection, and, in true Gary fashion, he turned some of the long-held beliefs about this coinage on their heads. Gary tried to reclaim this as the first overseas British token issue, not the first coin for the American colonies – a bit tongue in cheek, since as a British token its price would be knocked down by 90+%, making it far more affordable for collectors!

Because Gary had undergone his last bout of radio treatments for brain cancer literally a few days before the 2024 Token Congress, he pre-recorded the talk, in case he was not up to presenting it in person; he ended up playing the video for the presentation, but took questions from the audience live. I asked Gary if he would share this talk with American collectors, and of course he quickly agreed – the most important thing was always getting the knowledge out to a wider audience. This video is now hosted on the website of The Colonial Coin Collectors Club, and can be viewed at: https://colonialcoins.org/c4-videos

Though a scientist by training, Gary was no staid academic wearing a tweed jacket with elbow patches; indeed, he was usually seen sporting a shirt from his beloved hard rock/heavy metal band AC/DC, with wild, unkempt hair sticking out at all angles. Gary had a wonderful sense of humor, which he injected into his many talks and his infectious laugh was loud enough to hear across the room. He made friends easily, and with his friends in coins he learned what they collected and tried to find things for them – for the dozen-plus Congresses I've attended, it was the rare year when Gary didn't hand me a little baggies of goodies that he knew I would like, pricing them well below what they would have cost on the bourse floor; I never passed on any of them, there was always at least one or two special pieces in that bag, and Gary knew exactly which ones they were.

Despite his many medical setbacks of the last half-decade, Gary always triumphed, always showed up with a smile on his face, ready to help out with anyone's research projects, and indeed seemed indestructible. While Gary's death was heartbreaking for his family, the same emotion is shared by his many friends across the globe. His loss is a serious blow to numismatic research, but we are fortunate that he did so much solid work in a relatively short period of time, and shared it with us all.

While numismatists often overuse the term unique, Gary certainly was. R.I.P., my friend.

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one says a lot about Gary's mind. Don't play with your food? Nonsense – use marshmallows and spaghetti to construct a scientific model, literally at the table where you are having dinner. And do so in an AC/DC shirt.

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