Joseph Jacob Mickley

Mickley, Joseph Jacob (24 Mar. 1799-15 Feb. 1878), numismatist, was born in Catasauqua, Northall Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Jacob Mickley and Eva Catherine Schrieber, farmers. At seventeen Mickley moved to Philadelphia, where he finished an apprenticeship in making pianos and in 1822 began a musical-instrument-making business. He developed a fine reputation for repair and restoration of stringed instruments. In 1831 the Franklin Institute awarded him a prize for his skill in manufacturing pianos. Mickley was married twice, first to Cordelia Hopfeldt and then to Diana Blummer, and had six children (dates and number of children for each marriage are unknown).

Mickley, who has been called the father of American numismatics, amassed one of the earliest important coin collections in America. His numismatic interest was piqued in 1816 or earlier when he attempted to find a very rare 1799 cent, from his birth year. In locating the sought-after cent, he had enlisted the help of his friends and at first settled for an uncirculated 1798 cent but finally obtained the coveted 1799 cent (which brought $40 when his collection was sold). Mickley soon had a host of extremely rare pieces. His two most expensive acquisitions were a Lord Baltimore penny and a Somers Islands shilling, both considered unique at the time.

Mickley, who in 1859 published Dates of United States Coins and Their Degrees of Rarity, a four-page pamphlet, was a founding member and the first president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, serving from 1858 until 1867, and several of its early meetings were held at his home. He was also a "well known" member of the Franklin Institute and the Pennsylvania Historical Society and an honorary member of the Boston Numismatic Society and the New York Numismatic and Archeological Society.

Mickley was proud of his coin collection and showed it freely to friends and strangers, even though he often lost a coin or two when showing it. Besides earlier thefts, twenty half dollars disappeared in 1848 and three scarce half eagles in 1854. In 1867 approximately half of Mickley's collection was taken from his third-floor front room. Taking that traumatic event as "a warning to desist from collecting any more," Mickley shifted his interest to books about coins rather than the pieces themselves. Although it was never determined how much was stolen, Mickley, who had been offered $30,000 for his entire collection, received in 1867 over $10,000 for what was left of his collection.

In addition to his legitimate collecting, Mickley was involved in illegal activities. The Philadelphia Mint customarily sold its worn dies in random batches to scrap-metal dealers. Mickley acquired at least one group of these dies and produced a one-cent forgery from them (in sufficient numbers to make it "by far the most common of many U.S. coins privately issued"). Using an engraving tool, he changed 1803 into 1804 on the obverse die of a cent, because 1804 cents were rare and in great demand. The reverse die of the forgery (which has been designated S-261) was from an 1818 to 1820 cent (reverse O). Either to repair damage or to obscure the fact that it was not the correct reverse for the date, the reverse side of the forgery was "heavily ground down." There is general agreement that these forgeries were struck between 1858 and 1860, but speculation that they were struck at the Philadelphia Mint is not supported by facts. Mickley apparently was involved in a "restrike" scheme involving 1823 cents. Apparently he obtained an 1823 Newcomb 2 obverse die and matched it with a reverse from the period and produced a few coins (one source claims forty-nine) before the obverse die broke, creating a nearly full-diameter crack. Mickley either gave or sold these coins to Dr. M. W. Dickeson, who later sold them to John W. Haseltine, an auctioneer. Mickley also altered to 1804 an obverse 1807 half eagle die (although both years were scarce) and mated it with an 1804 reverse. Examples of these coins were struck between 1858 and 1859 in silver and copper with and without reeded edges. Shortly before his death, Mickley struck other specimens in tin and white metal. He was also definitely identified with making 1811 half-cent forgeries from an 1811 obverse and an 1802 reverse. After Mickley's death, the U.S. government confiscated and destroyed twenty of his dies.

Mickley had other interests besides coins. He had important collections of autographs and books, which were sold at auction the year of his death. His autograph collection included all the signers of the Declaration of Independence and all the presidents through Ulysses S. Grant. Mickley also interested himself in historical research and traveled extensively. In 1875 he published A Brief Account of Murders by the Indians, and the Cause Thereof, in Northampton County, Penn'a., October 8th, 1763, which had been written a decade earlier as a family memoir for a centennial reunion. "Some Account of William Usselinx and Peter Minuit: Two Individuals Who Were Instrumental in Establishing the First Permanent Colony in Delaware," a paper he had presented before the Historical Society of Delaware in 1874, was published in 1881. Mickley, who was fluent in French, German, and Swedish and familiar with Italian, Spanish, and Russian, visited every mint in Europe. He was empowered as an agent for the Philadelphia Mint to collect coins and medals for its Mint Cabinet. After traveling throughout Europe, including Lapland and Russia, he visited Asia and Africa.

Mickley died in Philadelphia. A year after his death a medal was executed in his honor at the Royal Swedish Mint of Stockholm by its chief medalist, Lea Ahlborn, who was also Mickley's friend. Engraved from a photograph taken shortly before Mickley's death, the medal was executed in silver and later in bronze. Its reverse side celebrates the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, and besides containing the portrait of Mickley, its obverse side documents his term as president of that society and the years of his birth and death.

Mickley's significance is that he brought a cosmopolitan intellectualism to coin collecting, which advanced it in America beyond mere accumulation of interesting oddities to a focused study of coins with a full knowledge of their historical and intellectual significance. Mickley gave a tremendous boost to coin collecting in America, despite his unethical sideline in forged rarities. Knowledgeable collectors were not fooled by his forgeries, because they invariably contained obvious "errors," and ironically they bolstered informed collecting by making an awareness of numismatic lore more necessary. Of course, this fortunate outcome in no way excuses Mickley's illegal behavior.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bibliography

Mickley's history is relatively well preserved, although much has been lost. Apparently Mickley was an enthusiastic journal writer, but only one year (1852) of his journals has survived. It, along with collateral material from his research in Sweden on the founding of Delaware and on early Pennsylvania immigrants, is in the collections of the Pennsylvania Historical Society in Philadelphia. An extensive research by Minnie Mickley, The Genealogy of the Mickley Family of America (1893), pp. 96-121, provides a wealth of personal information on his family as well as a reprint of J. Bunting, "Joseph J. Mickley: A Biographical Sketch," originally published in Lippincott's Magazine, July 1885. A sympathetic account of Mickley's life was given in his main obituary, written by his close friend William E. DuBois, in American Journal of Numismatics 12 (Apr. 1878): 103-5; repr. in Pennywise 8 (15 July 1974): 180-83. Further information can be found in William H. Ruddiman, "Memorial Notice of Joseph J. Mickley," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 2, no. 4 (1878): 457-58. For information on Mickley's involvement with the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, see Proceedings of the Numismatic & Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, vol. 26 (1910-1912); minutes and organizational information from the group's founding, 28 Dec. 1857, were published in the proceedings volume for 1913. Information on the medal struck in Mickley's honor for the Philadelphia Numismatic Society is presented in Raymond Williamson and Warren A. Lapp, "The Second Mickley Medal," Pennywise 8 (15 July 1974): 184-85.

Mickley's career as a maker of forgeries is well documented in a series of four columns by Tom DeLorey, "What Would You Call It," in Numismatic Scrapbook 41 (May 1975): 50-52, (June 1975): 46-48, (July 1975): 58-60, and (Dec. 1975): 90-92. Material on the 1811 half cent is illustrated in detail in Q. David Bowers, United States Copper Coins (1984), pp. 31-32, and in Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents 1793-1857 (1983), pp. 315-17.

Citation:

Eric P. Newman. "Mickley, Joseph Jacob";

http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-01649.html;

American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Dec 4 2016, 1:52:37 UTC

  ---

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Dec 4 2016, 1:52:37 UTC

  ---

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Dec 4 2016, 1:52:37 UTC
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Jan 3 2019, 10:26:57 UTC