DALE SEPPA REMEMBERS HOLLAND WALLACE

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 46, November 18, 2018, Article 6

Dale Seppa submitted this remembrance of numismatic researcher and author Holland Wallace. Thank you! -Editor

Holland was born in Hidalgo County, Texas on the 21st day of March 1940 to Holland W. Wallace Jr. and Patricia Elliott Wallace. He graduated from Weslaco High School, at age 17, in the class of 1957. He had been a National Merit Scholar and later attended Rice University before transferring to the University of Texas School of Architecture.

Regardless of his academic achievements, Holland’s real love was coins and history and economics related to coins. After working as an architectural draftsman for a few years he went to work for Stanley K. Rupert, a well known San Antonio coin dealer where he gained a wide general knowledge of numismatics.

During this period he authored and published Central American Coinage Since 1821. In the words of the Central American numismatic scholar Brian Stickney:

“This handy 125-page book opened the field to collecting the seven countries now constituting Central America. Holland's work provided just enough background to arouse interest and provide historical context but, then, saturated the reader with numismatic detail not really seen in references to that date. Central American Coinage incorporated a plethora of photos along with each coin’s narrative description, weight, diameter, and metallic content along with prices in three-to-four grades and the occasional cryptic comment on rarity or variations. Also, for the first time, he provided extensive mintage data, where known. He set the tone for future endeavors addressing country, regional, and even global numismatic references works.”

COIN WORLD dated May 11, 1966 announced that Holland had joined the editorial staff of the Whitman Publishing Company in Racine, WI. Sometime in late 1966 or early 1967 Holland kindly invited Soterios Gardiakos and me to be his guests at Whitman. It was the first time I met him, and in the few hours we were together I learned many things previously unknown to me. He continued to be a source of help and information to me and many others over the next fifty years.

During his ten years at Whitman, Holland authored and edited many articles and books to include two editions of A Guide Book of Mexican Coins - 1822 to Date, Coins of the World 1750 – 1850 as well as working on the various books authored by R. S. Yeoman. Several of his articles were also published in the Whitman Numismatic Journal and other periodicals.

After the sale of Whitman to Western Publishing Holland moved to California and became a dealer specialized in Latin American coins. He issued regular price lists and had bourse tables at many major coin shows often working with Freeman L. Craig Jr. He lived with Craig for a short period until Freeman married Marney Albert in July of 1980. In conjunction with Craig, he finished a 250-page book entitled CROWN COINAGE OF THE AMERICAS which was never published due to the financial failure of the publisher. Based on letters from him and comments from others the decade he spent in California was the happiest period of his life.

When he subsequently decided to further his education he returned to Texas to attend San Antonio College (now UTSA) acquiring a degree in Information Systems. He subsequently returned to Weslaco to help his aging parents take care of his handicapped brother. With the death of his mother in 1994 his burden increased as there was now only one body to take care of a handicapped brother and a rapidly aging father. After the death of his father in 2001 the complete management of the family trusts fell upon Holland’s shoulders. By this time Holland was also in failing health so the burden was two-fold if not four-fold.

With failing health, and increased responsibility Holland commenced his long period of decline through no fault of his own. A flood in 2016 destroyed about ten thousand pounds of numismatic literature which must have been heartbreaking to a person that had built one of the finest, privately held Latin American Numismatic libraries in the world. The remaining four tons or so of Latin American numismatic literature have been moved by Freeman Craig, the executor of Holland’s will, to the establishment of Alan Workman in Orlando who will auction them off in 2019 for the benefit of the estate.

His last years passed largely in pain and he was often bed ridden for weeks and months at a time. Nevertheless he continued his research and email contacts, as long as he was still able, with the friends and associates that he had acquired over six decades as a professional numismatist and researcher.

Sad to see another great numismatist pass away but ashes to ashes and dust to dust – rest in peace my friend! You will be missed by many!