The Chicago Coin Club announces that the seventh person to be inducted into its Hall of Fame is author and hobby leader Harry X Boosel, "Mr.1873." His Hall of Fame citation has been published on the club's Hall of Fame web page, www.chicagocoinclub.org/projects/hof.

Twelve Hall of Fame inductees have been selected. Each of the remaining five will be announced at the rate of one per month, August throughDecember, during the Chicago Coin Club's centennial year, 2019.

The Chicago Coin Club was organized in 1912 as American Numismatic Association Branch No. 1, and reorganized under its present name in 1919. Allare invited to join. To become a member you must attend a meeting and submit an application along with a membership fee of $20 ($10 for Juniormembership). A first reading of your application will be held at this meeting, and a second reading at the next monthly meeting, followingpublication of your name in the club newsletter. (You are not required to be present for the second reading.) Upon membership approval, you willbecome a member.

The Chicago Coin Club holds monthly meetings in downtown Chicago, plus at major numismatic conventions such as Central States, with a speakerfeatured at every meeting except the annual auction, held at the November meeting.

Harry X Boosel joined the Chicago Coin Club on March 7, 1934 as member No. 239. During his 60-year membership he served as President1951-52 and was Chairman of the 1937 ANA Convention (in Washington, D.C., while living there temporarily) and General Chairman of the 1966 ChicagoANA Convention. He received the Club's Medal of Merit in 1962 and its Literary Award in 1972. A frequent exhibitor, he was honored with eight CabeenExhibit Awards, and spoke before the club many times.

Mr. Boosel (August 17, 1912 - August 18, 1994) had a long career with the U.S. Government, starting as a file clerk in 1936 and retiring in 1972as Chief, Office of Industrial Security, Defense Supply Agency. During World War II, he spent four years in the military, serving in the Army CounterIntelligence Corps and the Office of Strategic Services. His father had a good income and he lived at home for many years, enabling him to collectearly U.S. proof sets at the age of 21.

Fellow club member Lee Hewitt (Hall of Fame No. 6) suggested that he collect the coinage of 1873 because of the many types produced that year.Rising to the challenge, Mr. Boosel wrote a series of articles on them for the Numismatic Scrapbook, March 1957 - December 1958, discoveringthat there were two varieties of the date: Closed 3 (original) and Open 3 (improved). These articles were reprinted as 1873-1873 (with the twodate fonts) and the varieties added to the 13th edition of the Guide Book. He also shared his knowledge of 1873 issues at the 1986 ANS Coinageof the Americas Conference. And in 1959 he published the results of his study of Saudi Arabian gold discs, giving the reason for their issue andexposing recent counterfeits.

In 1943, while serving in the Army in Marquette, Michigan, Mr. Boosel came across the important 19th-century collection of Nathan M. Kaufman, ondisplay in the First National Bank & Trust Company there, in a special room built specifically to house it (the most valuable pieces were held in twosafes, which remained closed during the war). In 1970 he returned and was able to inventory and appraise the whole collection, which was finally soldat auction in 1978.

Over the years Mr. Boosel gave a great deal back to the hobby, serving as Governor of the ANA (in 1937, the youngest ever elected) in the 1930sand 1980s; Chairman, National Coin Week; and Governor and President, Central States Numismatic Society. He placed award-winning exhibits. The ANApresented him with its highest honor, the Farran Zerbe Award, in 1989. He was appointed to the Assay Commission in 1964 and elected a Fellow of theAmerican Numismatic Society in 1987.

Mr. Boosel wanted to be called "Mr. 1873" because of his extensive study of the coinage of that year, to the eventual exclusion of almosteverything else. He made a point of insisting that his middle name was "X" (no period), and refused to accept a Chicago Coin Club Cabeen ExhibitAward medal on which the engraver had added one; the club had another made, with careful instructions.

To read the complete article, see:
Hall of Fame - Chicago Coin Club - Member 7 Harry X Boosel(http://www.chicagocoinclub.org/projects/hof/m07.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
CHICAGO HALL OF FAME INDUCTS LEE F. HEWITT(https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n22a17.html)