KEN BRESSETT INTERVIEW, PART THREE

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V29 2026 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 29, Number 24, 2026, Article 14

Greg Bennick's latest interview for the Newman Numismatic Portal is with "Mr. Redbook". Ken Bressett. Here's the third of six parts, where Ken discusses his interactions with Walter Breen, William Sheldon, Dorothy Paschal, and his work photographing coins for Penny Whimsy. -Editor

Among the Titans: Breen, Sheldon, Paschal, and the World of Early American Copper

GREG BENNICK: So, around the same era, I know that you had an interaction in 1948 with Walter Breen, who was playing piano, I think, at an ANA convention?

Ken Bressett and the Early Days of NENA News 1

KEN BRESSETT: I didn't really interact with him, but that was where I first met him. I joined the ANA in 1947, and my first ANA show was in Boston in 1948, that following year. That was the same for Walter Breen. He joined the same time, and that was his first convention. I didn't interact with him really. He was like the star of the convention. He was a brilliant pianist, and he'd sit in a conspicuous place and play the piano and everybody was saying, "What a prodigy this is, and he's going to make a great collector and all that." I just think that was an interesting thing to see, and later in life to know how he turned out, which was not very well.

GREG BENNICK: Sure. Absolutely. Well, it's interesting that you met him in a different context, or that you first interacted with him in a very different context.

KEN BRESSETT: Yes. And we remained what you call friends over the years. We always had good conversations about coins and different opinions about different things. I knew him in that regard.

GREG BENNICK: Also, through my connection with William Sheldon. You know, Dr. Sheldon who did Penny Whimsy and...

GREG BENNICK: Yes! I was going to ask if you met and knew him. I think you mentioned at one point that you did.

KEN BRESSETT: Yes, I did, quite well, as well as I wanted to. He was not a nice person.

GREG BENNICK: What were your interactions with him like? What did you learn from him?

KEN BRESSETT: At that time, that was in the 1950s, before my Whitman editor—my Red Book days—I collected large cents. I was a serious collector of large cents by variety. I learned how to grade from William Sheldon himself. He allowed me to look at his entire collection of large cents and all the different varieties, and he taught me how to grade them. I don't think anybody else can claim that connection.

So I did learn a lot from Sheldon and Paschal and Breen, and I don't know if I said that my Early American Coppers Club membership is Honorary #151. So I was really into large cents and large cent varieties.

KEN BRESSETT: Oh, not at all. Not at all. But one time—I walked on so many avenues it's hard to keep them all straight—at that time I was learning how to photograph coins.

KEN BRESSETT: I had built my own darkroom. I processed film. I rolled my own film. I did everything. I had a darkroom and I was taking photographs of coins, and I did all of this so that I could photograph coins that I couldn't afford. I still do that. I have photographs of just about every United States coin, every variety, every type.

KEN BRESSETT: Yeah. I had to know that if I was supposed to know about American coins. So Sheldon said, "Will you photograph some coins for the next edition of Penny Whimsy?" And I said, "Yeah, sure." And I did indeed. But to see his coins, he lived in New York and I lived in New Hampshire. He had Dorothy Paschal pack up his coins and bring them to me and let me photograph them at my home.

And you'll see in that book—I'm not making up this story—my name is right in there as photographer for these coins.

GREG BENNICK: I'm going to have to look as soon as we're off the phone. I'm looking across the room at my copy of the book right now.

About the Interviewer
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins and US counterstamps. He is on the board of both CONECA and TAMS and enjoys having in-depth conversations with prominent numismatists from all areas of the hobby. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime via instagram @minterrors. He can also be reached by email at minterrors@gmail.com.