CHARLES EDWARD KIRTLEY (1948-2017)

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V29 2026 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 29, Number 6, 2026, Article 22

E-Sylum Feature Writer and American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted this article on dealer Charles Kirtley. Thank you. -Editor

This week I came across a reference to Charles E. Kirtley. I wondered if he was still living. I don't recall seeing a death notice in any numismatic publication.

Charles E. Kirtley was a dealer in tokens, medals and related literature. He also had an interest in North Carolina currency.

Kirtley was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 2, 1948. He was the son of Thomas Mahlon Kirtley (1928-1975) and Margy Ann Hartmann (1930-2024) Kirtley.

Charles E. Kirtley ran ads in Coin World in 1968 before he turned twenty. The address was in Cullowhee, North Carolina, the location of Western Carolina University.

Kirtley joined national numismatic organizations while in college. As C. E. Kirtley, he joined the ANA in January 1972 as member R-70457 from Flat Rock, North Carolina, the home town of his parents. Later he became LM-4805. He ran frequent ads in The Numismatist.

He joined the Society of Paper Money Collectors (SPMC) as member 3369 in 1972. He advertised that he wanted to buy past issues of their journal.

Kirtley joined the Token and Medal Society (TAMS) in 1972 as member 3463. He ran a half-page ad in the TAMS Journal for December 1, 1973, offering Civil War tokens for sale.

He was married to Margaret Minerva Broyles (1952-2018) on December 15, 1973, while they were both seniors at WCU. Her obituary does not mention a marriage.

He graduated magna cum laud with a B.A. from Western Carolina University in 1974 with majors in history and sociology. Later he received an M. A. from Duke University.

He joined the Civil War Token Society as member 463. Kirtley conducted a mail bid sale in Journal of the Civil War Token Society in 1974.

Kirtley contributed an article on "The Descriptive Grading of Uncirculated Civil War Tokens" to the March 1, 1975, issue of Journal of the Civil War Token Society, In 1975, he had a P. O. Box in Durham, North Carolina, the location of Duke University.

In 1979-80. Kirtley offered a series of fixed price lists out of a P. O. Box in Marble, North Carolina.

He married Rebecca Jane Foster (living, age 75) on July 5, 1980. At the time he was employed at Clinton Precision Instruments. They had one child.

Kirtley became a full-time dealer in 1983. He conducted many mail bid sales and some auctions, probably more than 150 by 2001. His listing in American Numismatic Auctions by Martin Gengerke is incomplete. His business address was in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

In the September 2002 issue of The Numismatist, he was expelled from the ANA for failure to respond to ANA correspondence. The Newman Numismatic Portal has no news after that.

Kirtley died on September 22, 2017, at the Charles George V. A. Medical Center in Naples, North Carolina. He is buried at Shepherd Memorial Park in Naples.

Determining the full extent of his fixed price lists, mail bid sales and auctions is difficult. American Numismatic Auctions by Martin Gengerke lists 107 sales by 1993. Gengerke is missing sales at both ends. In my library I have Kirtley's sale 128 closing on April 2, 1996, and his sales continued beyond that. I found a reference to a MBS 157. The Newman Numismatic Portal does not have an archive of his sales.

Kirtley was also expelled from TAMS. His obituary names his third wife as Sea Xu Zheng, but Pete was unable to independently confirm that. I heard that he was wounded in Viet Nam, but Pete found more than one veteran named Charles E. Kirtley and couldn't nail down a military record. -Editor

To read the online obituary, see:
Charles Edward Kirtley (https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/charles-kirtley-obituary?pid=186812666)