Betts, Charles Wyllys (1845-1887), Lawyer, Die Sinker, Coiner of Imitation Coins, Numismatist,Author.

He was born on August 13, 1845, at Newburgh-on-the Hudson, Orange County, New York, the son of Judge Frederic Joel Betts (1803-1879) and Mary Ward Scoville (1813-1868).

In 1855, his family moved to New Haven, Connecticut. He and his older brother Frederic attended school preparing them for Yale where their father intended them to study law.

In July 1861, just before the outbreak of the Civil War, he was forced to leave school due to an illness. During his convalescence he began to collect coins as it was suggested to him forrecreation. Since numismatics was suggested it probably meant that he was given to read on this subject. Contemporary with young Betts was the numismatic author, William Cowper Prime (1825-1905). In1860, Prime published two articles in Harper's New Monthly Magazine; first, "Coins and Coinage," in January; and "Coins in America," February. The following year he published, Medals, andSeals, Ancient and Modern. Illustrated and Described... (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1861). Betts interest in coins was soon merged with his homeschooling lessons of early American historyand his studies in the art of engraving.

It was fashionable for young schoolboys to learn the art of etching and engraving. It is possible that Mr. Root of New York, whom we shall see, Betts will write to him about Fugio dies availablefor purchase, was probably a man known to young Betts back in Newburgh, who could make medals, tokens and store cards. Sixteen year-old Betts appears to have applied his skill at engraving dies tomake coins and medals celebrating real historical events and sometimes with his facts mixed-up. This was never done from a malevolent motive to deceive for profit duping an unsuspecting buyer, butrather, was done as an art form for amusement and with propriety. Betts tells us in his own words :

These specimens are now celebrated as the "Betts Fantasy Pieces", which fooled serious collectors who came by them at sales unaware of their creation by a schoolboy, and so, it perplexed and vexedmany who acquired them having sometimes paid much during the 1870's and later.

All of this mishap could have been avoided had these coin collectors kept abreast of the numismatic literature circulating in their day. It had been widely known through the efforts of WilliamElliot Woodward (1825-1892), a coin dealer from Roxbury, Massachusetts, and one of the earliest full-time coin dealers in the country, in his 9th coin auction sale, to the keen collector as early asmid 1864 that Betts produced fabrications of many coins. On May 17-20, 1864, W. Elliot Woodward published an addenda to this catalog of coins, medals and tokens belonging to John F. McCoy to be soldat auction by Leavitt, New York, containing a list of 45 fabrications and struck copies of coins and medals from Betts' coin collection. Had coin collectors kept abreast of this 9th Woodward sale andthe notices published in The Coin Collectors Journal and in Numisma by Edouard Frossard in 1877 and 1878-1879 respectively their sense of loss could have been avoided.

Besides his own creations of fictitious colonial coins and medals Betts would hunt for genuine specimens by scouring the vicinity of New Haven on coin hunting expeditions, making inquiries andvarious purchases in order to build his collection for numismatic study and amusement.

On June 11, 1863, he sold his modest collection of thirty medals through William Harvey Strobridge in an addendum to the sale of the Late Hon. Henry Augustus Muhlenberg, Esq [1823-1854] that washeld beginning June 9,1863, at the auction house of Bangs, Merwin & Co., Irving Building, 594 and 596 Broadway, New York City, New York.

He was putting numismatics aside as he entered Yale College in 1863, and as we have already seen sold 45 fabrication coins and medals in 1864 through Woodward. Regardless, he graduated YaleCollege in 1867, and won prizes for excellence in literature composition. In 1869, he graduated Columbia Law School, New York City, New York, and was admitted to the bar. In 1871, he completedpost-graduate studies at Yale University. Consequently, from 1863 to 1871 Betts was assiduously busy with studies at school and had no time to devote to numismatics.

After graduation he entered the law office of Whitney & Betts, i.e., his elder brother Frederic H. Betts.

In 1875, the Betts brothers formed their own law office F.H & C. W. Betts, which in 1878 became Betts, Atterbury & Betts, where he continued practicing law up until his death.

He married in 1879 and his wife died in 1880.

In the spring of 1884 he resumed coin collecting and soon became a resident member of the ANS.

In April 1886, he gave an address to the ANS, "Counterfeit Half Pence Current in the American Colonies and their Issue from the Mints of Connecticut and Vermont," which was printed by request ofthe Society and distributed since it was a landmark paper and forms the foundation on all subsequent research of American colonial counterfeiting 1785-1788. Nearly three-quarters of a century laterthis essay was so highly regarded as precious that George Fuld and Robert Vlack reprinted it again early in 1960. A second reprinting was done by Jim Spilman in the June 1981 issue of The ColonialNewsletter, but with corrections and additions that aid the reader in identifying specimens by Vlack, Bressett and Barnsley/Miller attributions.

He was a specialist of Admiral Vernon Medals, and cataloged and described 167 varieties.

His opus magnus, American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals, was left unfinished by his sudden and unexpected death. It was completed by his brother Frederic Henry Betts,William Sumner Appleton, Lyman Haynes Low, and William Theophilus Rogers Marvin, and published posthumously in 1894, seven years after his demise.

In May 1886, he left for a trip to Europe and visited the British Museum, London, and the Paris Mint in order to do research for his manuscript, American Colonial History Illustrated byContemporary Medals. He died less than a year later. In November 1886 he corresponded with Steuben Jenkins about an Indian medal, Betts 164. One letter of correspondence together with Betts'rubbings and sketch are in the Lupia Numismatic Library and were published in the Medal Collectors of America (MCA) Advisory.

It was on a Wednesday, April 27, 1887, that he died of pneumonia at his brother Frederic's home at 78 Irving Place, New York City, New York. He was surrounded by his brother's family : hissister-in-law Louise, two nephews, Frederic, Jr and Wyllys, and his niece Mary Betts.

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BETTS, CHARLES WYLLYS (http://www.numismaticmall.com/numismaticmall-com/betts-charles-wyllys)