STEVE FELLER (1951-2025)

Steve Feller, 1951-2025

Steve Feller was born in Brooklyn in 1951. He was fiercely proud of New York and all things New York, including his attendance at a Brooklyn Dodgers game before the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. Despite living most of his life in the Midwest, Steve's Brooklyn accent quickly betrayed his home-town loyalty. He was a collector from childhood. Harry Cynkus, a lifelong friend, recalled the two boys searching for cents and nickels in bank rolls to fill out their Lincoln and Jefferson sets. Feller received a Ph.D. in physics from Brown in 1979 and spent the remainder of his life as a professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA, where he was known simply as "Doc."

Steve was innately curious, a person who thought out loud and enjoyed matching wits on nearly any topic, not in the spirit of competition, unless the subject was the historical superiority of the New York Yankees, but with a humble ambition to see what new knowledge might develop from rigorous discussion.

Steve's earliest numismatic works (co-written with his wife Barbara) are a pair of articles in The Numismatist (April 1981 and April 1982) related to WWII concentration camp money. Endnotes indicate that Steve had been interested in the subject since at least 1969. The topic was personal to Steve, whose grandmother ("Nana Pearl") escaped Poland before the war but lost most of her family. Steve gave a related presentation at the 1986 ANA convention in Milwaukee, speaking on "Money from the Lodz Ghetto." In 2007, Steve and his daughter Ray published a comprehensive guide to WWII camp money, Silent Witnesses: Civilian Camp Money of World War II.

Over time Steve built perhaps the most significant collection of WWII camp money outside of the Charlton Meyer collection in the Houston Holocaust Museum. Not surprisingly, Steve authored the exhibit catalog for the Meyer collection, Questionable Issue: Currency of the Holocaust (2003). He spoke at the Meyer exhibit opening in Houston on August 28, 2003. Steve loaned portions of his own collection for an exhibit at Washington University in St. Louis in 2022, where he delivered a related presentation, with Ray Feller, in October of that year.

Steve wrote for any number of numismatic publications, and a complete bibliography could not be easily compiled. The IBNS Journal index notes 152 submissions. His work further appeared in The Numismatist and The Gobrecht Journal. In 1986 Steve shared, with Saul Needleman, the first-place Milton Fishgold literary award of the American Israel Numismatic Association. Steve, along with Ray Feller, was presented with the ANA President's Award by Gary E. Lewis in July, 2005. This was not Steve's first such award, having also been so recognized in June 1999. Steve and Ray were named Numismatic Ambassadors at the January 2018 FUN convention. The two were faithful attenders of the annual MPC Fest in Port Clinton, OH. Steve was a member of numerous numismatic organizations, including AINA, ANA, IBNS (he was editor of the IBNS Journal from 1990-2007), LSCC, NLG, SPMC, Carson City Collectors Club of America, Cedar Rapids Coin Club, Chicago Coin Club, and no doubt others.

I met Steve only in recent years, when he drove from Cedar Rapids to Washington University in St. Louis to loan us material for exhibit. Only when I grasped the significance of the collection did I understand why the material had to be hand-carried. Steve took"never again" personally and felt a responsibility to act accordingly. That was only a part of who he was, and his family, friends, and students will speak to his personal and professional impact for a long time.

 
Steve Feller, Clifford Mishler, and Ray Feller at the January 2018 FUN convention,
receiving Numismatic Ambassador awards

Link to Steve Feller obituary:
https://www.thegazette.com/obituaries/steve-doc-feller/

Link to Steve Feller memorial service video at Coe College, November 21, 2025:
https://www.youtube.com/live/H9JhzN0yypU?si=ydQqdoSebjUwnQ4b

Link to Steve Feller numismatic presentations on Newman Portal:
https://archive.org/details/newmannumismatic?tab=collection&query=steve+feller&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22movies%22

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: SILENT WITNESS - WORLD WAR II CIVILIAN CAMP MONEY (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n08a03.html)
STEVE FELLER: LINCOLN CENTS BY THE NUMBERS (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n09a08.html)
BOOK REVIEW: ALLIED MILITARY MARKS IN GERMANY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n37a07.html)
MORE ON THE PIONEER BASE BALL CLUB (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n23a07.html)
FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS IN NUMISMATICS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n37a15.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: AUGUST 17, 2025 : Steve Feller Visits the Higgins Museum (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n33a14.html)

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