Whodunit?

​I always think that numismatics can be as much about the people as about the objects themselves. So I offer this quiz from a 1995 issue of The Coin Collector, a newspaper published by Bowers and Merena starting in 1994.

This quiz asked five questions testing the reader’s knowledge of a varied group of numismatic personalities. Answers are given at the end.

1. This Philadelphia kindergarten teacher posed for the obverse portrait used on certain pattern half dollars of 1877, an image later featured on the Morgan silver dollar of 1878.

1. Mary Cunningham
2. Davida Clark
3. Anna Williams
4. Aurora Porter

2. This rascally (sort of) numismatist made several “colonial coin” fantasies, some of which fooled the experts. Today, he is best known for the authorship of a book, published after his death, on historical medals relating to America.

1. C. Wyllys Betts
2. John W. Haseltine
3. W.S. Baker
4. John Gardner

3. In 1882, the Chapman brothers, brash youths who had been in the coin business for a relatively short time, snatched a rare prize which they cataloged for auction. It was the collection formed by:

1. Sylvester S. Crosby
2. Howland Wood
3. John Story Jenks
4. Charles I. Bushnell

4. Mayor of Monroe, Michigan, and a medical doctor, he was instrumental in the founding of the American Numismatic Association.

1. Joseph Lesher
2. George Heath
3. Milferd Bolender
4. George F. Kunz

5. If you seek to attribute half dollars of the 1794-1836 years, you would do well to seek a book written by:

1. Al C. Overton
2. Richard S. Yeoman
3. Charles V. Kappen
4. Ard W. Browning

Answers: 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b, 5-a.