MARVIN LESSEN (1934-2025)

MARVIN LESSEN

Baltimore MD. USA February 17, 1934 – April 3, 2025, Albany NY. USA

Marvin spent his youth in Baltimore, Hazleton, PA. and then in Albany. He earned his Batchelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He spent his career in the aerospace/defence industry, working in various locations - nationally in Boston, Alaska, and latterly in Los Angeles. In the early 1960's he was based in Scarborough and worked at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire.

Marvin was a collector by instinct - stamps, arms and armour, cameras - and coins. His time in England sparked a serious interest in British coins. In Scarborough he saw a Charles I or was it a Cromwell coin? amongst a handful of other coins on a plate in the window of an antique dealer, and purchased it. He started to become more and more interested in coins - and medals - of the period, and - was hooked. He became a member of the British Numismatic Society in October 1964, and subsequently a fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society. He subscribed to Seaby's Bulletin, and to Spink's Numismatic Circular, and whilst in Yorkshire Marvin got to know Corbitt and Hunter in Newcastle. When he returned to the USA he formed strong relationships with dealers with an interest in British coins - Chris Blom, Bill Castenholz, CNG, Dave Hess and Joel Malter.

Marvin moved to Culver City, near to Los Angeles in the 1970's, but his head and heart were still lingering in the UK. He had a large wall map of the UK in his apartment, with all the routes he had driven whilst he had been based there marked with a felt tipped pen - it was covered!

He was a skilled black and white photographer, and he loved listening to classical music of all kinds; an avid walker, he habitually walked 10 miles on a Sunday morning along the beach fronts in the LA area. On a visit I made to the area in the 1990's he challenged me to match him on his 10+ mile walk on one Sunday morning. I did with no real problem, and he was suitably impressed.

Along with his coins and medals, he formed a remarkably fine and complete library on all areas of British numismatics – mainly with the help of Howard Linecar and Douglas Saville at Spink and John Drury in England; and later through George Kolbe in the US. This helped him to produce a very large number of papers on mid-17th century numismatics. These were published in the pages of the British Numismatic Journal, the Numismatic Chronicle, Seaby's Bulletin, and Spink's Numismatic Circular. His main area of specialisation were the coins and medals of the mid-17th century, especially those of Oliver Cromwell, and the early years of Charles II.

 

His favourite numismatic author was Henry William Henfrey (1852-81), whose Numismata Cromwelliana, privately published in 1877, remains one of the truly significant pieces of numismatic research produced in Britain in the 19th century. Henfrey died of TB at the age of just 29 - a terrible loss to numismatics at the time. Marvin had at least 7 copies of Henfrey's work, in various states of preservation - one set was in the original parts, as published. I recall once finding a part - set of the Journal that Henfrey had edited whilst he was at school - we had never heard of it before, and it was a most important acquisition - he never managed to complete it.

Marvin's fine collection of coins and medals was sold by DNW (now Noonans) in London as "The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins" in four sales, between April 2018 and January 2021. A bibliography of his published work is published in those catalogues. His extensive library – packed in almost 100 large cartons - had already been shipped to the UK and was handled by Douglas Saville Numismatic Books. It resides, intact, within the library of a well-respected private collector in the UK, and is available to serious numismatic researchers.

Latterly Marvin was finding it less than easy to manage his day-to-day life, and he moved back to the east coast to be near to his family - his sister, Elaine, and his nephews Steven and Alan and families. In more recent years his health began to fail, and he was cared for by the Daughters of Sarah Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Albany, NY.

Marvin will be remembered for having made a very significant contribution to our knowledge of the numismatics of Oliver Cromwell and the early years of Charles II.

To read the complete collection introduction, see:
The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins (https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/archive/special-collections/769/collector/)

To read an online obituary, see:
Marvin Lessen Obituary (https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/timesunion-albany/name/marvin-lessen-obituary?id=58293352)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web