CALVIN OTTO WILSON, JR. (1944-2018)

Cal Wilson helped guide the Numismatic Bibliomania Society through its formative years. He served as first president of the Society. He also helped many bibliomaniacs expand their libraries.

He was born in Pensacola, Florida, on August 18, 1944. His father, Calvin Otto Wilson, Sr. (1920-2001), was a veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor who served 27 years in the Navy. The father brought home coins from his foreign deployments that he gave to his three sons. His mother was Nevada Hall (1926-2005).

Wilson included an autobiography in the first issue of his newsletter, Wilson's Numismatic Repository. He mentioned a Boy Scout Merit Badge counselor who told him the importance of numismatic literature. His first coin book, acquired in 1957, was a thirteenth edition "Red Book."

Cal graduated from Pensacola High School in 1962, attended Pensacola Junior College and Florida State University where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.

Wilson settled in Sacramento where he was employed with Continental Can and later with Crown Cork and Seal Manufacturing Company as a production Planning Supervisor. By 1974 he was in Fremont, California, and resumed his hobby by buying up numismatic libraries.

Cal had at least three marriages. He was married to Teresa Bronson on May 4, 1964, in Escambia, Florida. They had a daughter. He was married again on March 2, 1968, to Marcia Lynne Elliot. They had a son. His surviving widow was Cindie Wilson.

Wilson retired from the canning business and became a numismatic literature dealer in 1980. He advertised to sell a complete collection of "Red Books" in Coin World and Numismatic News.

As Calvin O. Wilson, he was enrolled as ANA life member LM-2828 in April 1981. He was a sponsor for the Numismatic Bibliomania Society joining the ANA in 1984.

The newly formed Numismatic Bibliomania Society had no president for a few years. The struggling organization conducted their first regional NBS meeting in Long Beach on February 19, 1983. In attendance were nearly thirty NBS members. At that event, Cal Wilson was elected NBS President for a two-year term. He then served on the NBS Board from the summer of 1985 to the summer of 1989.

At some point, looking back, a list of NBS Charter Members was prepared but has proven to be unreliable. Logically, Jack Collins was assigned member number 1 and George Kolbe was assigned member number 2. This was followed by numbers 3 through thirteen that were "Reserved." No explanation was given and the numbers were never assigned.

Number 14 was given to Cal Wilson and was followed by a listing in alphabetical order. His low number may have been given in recognition of his role as first elected president. The reserved numbers gave a buffer to separated him from the founding members.

Cal published a newsletter, Wilson's Numismatic Repository beginning with the issue of October 1982. The name was shortened to The Repository in July 1984 and ended publication in 1988. During its run, his newsletter was more regular and more informative than the NBS Journal, The Asylum.

Cal Wilson issued a fixed price list in 1980. He produced 18 auctions of numismatic literature between 1981 and 1988.

The ANA convention was in San Diego in 1983. During the show, Wilson conducted his fifth sale on August 14, 1983. I attended with my mentor, Dick Punchard. I am sure there were many NBS members present, but I specifically remember Armand Champa and his wife.

Wilson announced that he was writing a book with biographies of important numismatists. In the April 1988 issue of The Asylum, Wilson wrote,

When he later announced that he was dropping the project, it opened the opportunity for someone else to write a book of numismatic biographies.

Wilson made a comfortable living in private industry. He was not financially successful with his numismatic literature business. By 1989, he had closed the business with bills owed and consignors not paid. He expressed the hope that he could eventually pay off his debts.

For the next thirty years, he was heard from occasionally but he had nearly disappeared from the hobby.

Summarized from contemporary documentation in the NBS Archives:

Cal Wilson served as the unofficial (indeed, self-appointed), NBS historian from its earliest days, actively soliciting and saving archival material regarding the Society's founding and development. By the late 1980s, Cal had closed his numismatic literature business, and left the hobby.

In late 1998 and early 1999, I (by then official NBS Historian, having been appointed in 1993) had email contact with Cal whose email handle was "Biblionumis," in Fremont, California. On three separate occasions during the course of these communications, Cal promised to send me two boxes of early NBS archival records. He never fulfilled his promises.

In early April, 2002, a number of NBS Board members, including you (then NBS President, Pete Smith) and George Kolbe, became aware that "Biblionumis" was offering eBay item #1343985770, consisting of photographs, audiotapes, correspondence, clippings and news reports, minutes of Board meetings, and records of Annual meetings. The lot had a reserve bid of $99.99, and closed on April 13, 2002 at 19:41:18 PDT.

The NBS Board agreed that, although the title to the material was unclear, it should become the property of the NBS. A strategy was agreed upon whereby the Society, through a proxy bidder (Society Secretary-Treasurer David Sklow) should bid up to $250 for the material. In the auction, Sklow exceeded his limit by bidding $350, but still lost the lot. Sklow contacted the winner (who was not known to be part of the Board's bidding strategy), and asked him to either donate or sell the lot to the NBS.

The winner agreed to donate the lot, for which he paid $550, to the NBS. He requested anonymity until Cal actually shipped the lot to him. After receiving it, the winner completed the donation to the NBS, and revealed his identity: NBS Board member Tom Sheehan. Tom had been concerned that the Board authorization was too low, and bid anonymously on his own behalf in order to insure success.

So, we were successful in preserving these irreplaceable early records, albeit not without some drama and momentary disappointment. All kudos go to Tom, without whose perspicacity this story would have had a less satisfactory ending.

As I was compiling this article, there were things I wanted to look up in Wilson's Numismatic Repository and The Repository. Unable to find them on the Newman Numismatic Portal, I was forced to locate my printed copies in a somewhat buried file box.

When I read each issue forty years ago, they included interesting commentary on contemporary issues. Now, forty years later, those comments represent numismatic history and much of the content is great.

As often happens, I found myself down another rabbit hole. I found threads I wanted to pull and topics for future articles. Alas, the deadline to submit an article for The E-Sylum requires that I come out of that rabbit hole and finish what I was doing earlier.

To read issues of The Repository on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
The Repository [Cal Wilson] (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/521986)