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WILLIAM IDLER'S WILLAmerican Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted this article on the will of coin dealer William Idler. Thanks! -Editor Last week I wrote about William and Robert Idler. As I was doing the research, Julia Casey sent me a copy of William Idler's will. It includes a couple of interesting provisions. The will includes the typical legal boilerplate language found in a will. Idler directs that his bills should be paid and his property should be sold with the proceeds going to his heirs. Idler had five children and the estate should be distributed as five shares. His oldest son, Jacob, died on November 24, 1900, and William's will was signed on the day of the funeral, November 28, 1900. William left one-fifth share to support his grandson, Lewis Idler. Another one-fifth share went to the children of his daughter, Mary Idler Brown. A third one-fifth share went to his daughter, Rosanna Idler Haseltine. Then the will gets interesting. William Idler left two shares, each one-fifth of his estate, to his second son William Idler, Jr. He left nothing to his third son, Robert. Although he left nothing to Robert, Robert and William were named co-executors of the estate. The will makes no specific mention of coins. They would have been included in personal property to be sold for the benefit of the estate. Traditional numismatic lore says that some rare coins passed from William Idler to his son-in-law, John W. Haseltine. However, William Idler's will gives nothing to John W. Hazeltine and one-fifth share to Haseltine's wife. There may have been an agreement within the family that Haseltine would sell the coins for the benefit of the estate, but this is only conjecture. Robert Idler was not in the coin business before the death of his father. He may have joined Haseltine as a partner, but had little financial assets to put into the business and he presumably would have received nothing when Haseltine sold his father's coins. As a legal document, Idler's will spells out his intentions in black and white. However, the actual application of the will leaves some puzzles unsolved. Thanks! -Editor
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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