JOHN EDWIN MORSE (1861-1942)

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 9, , Article 17

E-Sylum Feature Writer and American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted this article on Massachusetts collector and early ANA member John E. Morse. Thanks! -Editor

I enjoy finding stories of numismatists who are not as well known as they might be. If I can connect them to collectible ephemera, so much the better.

John E. Morse was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 18, 1861. He was the son of Edwin Morse (1824-1879) and Martha Jane Worcester (1825-1910). Edwin was a carpenter.

John began collecting coins and paper money as a child, but coins tarnished and lost their luster. He developed a preference for paper money, documents and prints.

He was employed with Mechanics National Bank in Worcester from July 9, 1879, until January 31, 1885. He then worked at Mechanics Savings Bank as accountant, bookkeeper and teller until retirement on November 29, 1911. His banking career gave him access to currency that circulated at the time and possibly to uncurrent currency as well.

John then moved with his wife from Worcester to the century old Richardson House in Hadley, Massachusetts. His business address was also his home address.

The August 1891 issue of Plain Talk, then the official publication of the American Numismatic Association, listed the first twenty-five members of the ANA. John E. Morse was listed as member number twenty. His address was given as the Mechanics Savings Bank. In 1899, vacant membership numbers were reassigned to active members 1-99. In 1905, he was listed as member number ten.

Morse was born during the administration of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln had a large influence on his collecting interests. He had a significant collection of Lincoln medals. In addition, he collected Civil War envelopes, plaques, busts, books, engravings, lithographs, political cartoons, and other Lincolniana. He had a slightly smaller collection for President Grant and collections of medals for Garfield, McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Although Morse collected negotiable currency, his primary interest was in advertising and imitation paper money dating back to 1818. Sub-categories included stage money and school money.

Morse attended many of the ANA conventions from 1914 to 1942 and frequently placed exhibits.

At the 1914 convention, he had a large exhibit of paper money. The description in The Numismatist took 42 lines. This indicates the extent of his collection.

In 1916, his exhibit featured Massachusetts bank notes with the full description taking twenty lines.

In 1917 he had an exhibit of paper money including "shinplasters" and church scrip. He had another exhibit of paper money in 1919, described in sixteen lines.

In 1920 he had an exhibit of paper and card money plus fractional currency. In 1922 he exhibited medals and tokens of President Grant, New York state broken bank notes, New York card money and New York City tokens.

In 1923 he exhibited United States Notes, fractional currency and broken bank notes.

In 1933 he exhibited rare Lincoln medals, photographs, buttons, badges and paper money; Washington fractional currency in sheets; Eli Perkins currency; Meredith fractional currency caricatures; and World Columbian Exposition material.

At the 1937 ANA convention, Morse exhibited Bolen facsimile coins, Springfield, Massachusetts, medals and bank notes with the signature of J. Pierpont Morgan.

We can add Morse to the list of collectors who exhibited their collections in public places. In 1920, Morse placed an exhibit in the store window of G. Henry Clark of Northampton, Massachusetts.

For Lincoln's birthday in 1922 he had an exhibit of Lincoln medals and souvenirs in a Hadley, Massachusetts, store window. An unusual item was a carving of Lincoln on a Walrus tusk.

Another 1922 exhibit was placed at Northampton Bank with 500 varieties of paper money and 200 Lincoln medals.

The Jones Library in Amhurst, Massachusetts showed his exhibit of Lincoln material during coin week in 1926.

In 1921, he was elected president of the Springfield (MA) Coin Club. In 1935 he was president of the Northampton Numismatic Society across the river from Hadley.

In 1923, a collection of 125 $1 and $2 Massachusetts National Bank Notes formed by John E. Morse and purchased by Frank H, Shumway was presented to the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Under the heading of "RIDE YOUR HOBBIES." Morse ran ads in Hobbies Magazine during the period of 1931 to 1939. He also used that heading for ads in The Numismatist.

Morse was given a life membership by the ANA at the 1942 convention but did not enjoy the honor for long. At the time of his death on November 23, 1942, Morse had been a member of the ANA for 51 years. He was buried with his wife and parents at Hope Cemetery in Worcester.

The Heritage Auction of December 22, 2020, offered lot 84160, a 1905 advertising note overprinted by John E. Morse. It did not sell. The host note was copyrighted in 1905 by W. J. Wells. Printed in orange at the bottom center, "SOUVENIR OF MORSE'S MONEY MUSEUM."

Other versions of the host note have "Published by Federal Book Co. Wash. D.C." in orange at the bottom center.

John E. Morse did not move to Hadley, Massachusetts, until 1911. The overprint could have been done between 1911 and 1942.

The name "Morse's Money Museum" is not found on the Newman Numismatic Portal, The Numismatist archive, or the newspapers.com. site. Google has a match only for this note. The existence of Morse's Money Museum remains a mystery.

Morse overprinted advertising on common banknotes. He distributed these at several ANA conventions.

Before the 1916 convention, Morse sent out examples of "tainted money" with his advertisement on one side along with an invitation to the convention.

He gave out a souvenir imitation bank book at the ANA convention of 1921. It had facsimile bank notes protruding from the ends. Inside was a 10-cent note from the Northborough Bank of Marlborough, Massachusetts, dated November 1, 1862.

In 1924 he was unable to attend but sent Civil War scrip of Harmon & Root of Aurora, Ohio, with his advertisement.

Heritage has offered a Morse note described as a Richmond Confederate 50-cent note of 1864 more than ten times in this century.

Heritage also twice offered the same Joseph C. Tucker note of Townsend Bank at Brookline, New Hampshire. The three-cent advertising note is dated July 4, 1864. The Morse overprint is dated 1926.

An eBay listing had a Twenty-Five Cent note from Harris & Chapman in Boston dated December 1, 1862.

Morse could have printed advertisements on any number of other uniface banknotes besides those listed.