Over the years much has been written about the lives of prominent numismatists. Strangely, Ihave found very little concerning Henry Clay Ezekiel, who not only amassed a huge collection of tokens,medals, and paper money relating to Cincinnati, but also was acquainted with the die sinkers who wereresponsible for striking a significant percentage of all merchant tokens issued during the Civil War.

According to an article in the November, 1930 issue of The Numismatist, Ezekiel was born onJanuary 30, 1846 in Richmond, Virginia. He attended the Lancasterian School in Richmond, and upongraduation enlisted in the Confederate Army. Following his discharge he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio,where he resided for the rest of his life.

Ezekiel became an auctioneer, and in all probability started this career by working for someoneelse. His earliest advertisements under his own name, in 1875 issues of The Cincinnati Enquirernewspaper, describe his business as His October 5 th sale was of Thefollowing day he conducted a From that modest start, he quickly became Cincinnati'spremier auctioneer.

In 1878 Ezekiel began an association with Louis Rosin & Company, and by 1880 SamuelBernheim was also involved with the firm. An announcement in the January 1, 1881 newspaperannounced that the business was dissolved, and that This was a partnership that was destined to last for more than thirty years, and with greatsuccess.

Ezekiel & Bernheim handled such diverse items as fine art, automobiles, real estate, tobaccocrops, pianos, furniture, oriental rugs, glassware and china, coins, and antiques. During their years inbusiness they liquidated the inventories of numerous companies that were going out of business. In1911, for example, they conducted a sale devoted completely to shoes; 75,000 pairs of them. In additionto their Main Street location, they had a warehouse on E. Second Street, and another on Walnut Street.One of the services the firm offered was the insured storage of furniture, etc. in these facilities.

Ezekiel was active in community affairs. In 1877 he was elected president of the newly-formedYoung Men's Hebrew Association, and he was a member of several other Jewish organizations. Hevolunteered his services as auctioneer for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's concert seats, and heserved as a director of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute. In March, 1894 he married Jesse Myers ofAvondale (a neighborhood in Cincinnati) in what was described by The Cincinnati Enquirer as More than fifty family members and friends were in attendance. Thenew couple spent their honeymoon in Asheville, followed by a trip to New York.

An article in the June 16, 1914 issue of The Cincinnati Inquirer announced that the CincinnatiCommission Company had purchased Ezekiel & Bernheim's business, which had gone into receivershipseveral months earlier. Two of the four principals in the new company were Walter and Lewis Ezekiel; Iassume they were sons of Henry who, shortly prior to that notice, had announced his new realty agencyin the Provident Bank building at Vine and Seventh streets. He remained in that business until his deathin 1930.

Having read this far, perhaps you are wondering what all this has to do with Civil War tokens.Well, Ezekiel was a very active, knowledgeable, and, as you'll see, significant collector and dealer innumismatic items, and he was especially interested in those from Cincinnati. He was listed as a newmember of the American Numismatic Association in the September, 1905 issue of The Numismatist.From that time on his name appeared frequently in that publication. His obituary notice in theNovember, 1930 issue cites a 1911 biographical sketch in which he related that

Even prior to his membership, Ezekiel was placing ads in The Numismatist. His earliest, in theJune 1904 issue, offered to buy many types of items from Cincinnati, including shinplasters, store cards,tokens, copperheads, etc., and encased postage stamps. A full page ad in the October 1904 issueannounced that

A lengthy article in Charles Theodore Greve's Centennial History of Cincinnati andRepresentative Citizens, which was published in 1904, included a article by Ezekiel titled in which he explains that

Ezekiel was well acquainted with two very prolific Civil War token die sinkers, John Stanton andJames Murdock, Jr., and he was able to obtain examples of their work from directly them. Among theitems offered in his September 1905 sale was an and a

A fascinating article of interest to collectors was published in the June 4, 1911 edition of TheCincinnati Inquirer. Ezekiel had come to the attention of the reporter because he had run a classifiedadvertisement offering to buy numismatic items from Cincinnati. Concerning the Civil War tokens thatcirculated in Cincinnati, Ezekiel noted that

As I mentioned earlier, Ezekiel was acquainted with Stanton and Murdock. An ad in theNovember 1917 issue of The Numismatist announced that a Known as the it was described as comprised of

Ezekiel's collection wasn't limited to tokens and obsolete currency. It was described as being Art was another of Ezekiel's passions, and in 1924 his was sold by the Traxel Art Gallery in Cincinnati. He would have been a fascinating person toknow!

For more information about the Civil War Token Society, see:
http://cwtsociety.com/

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
HENRY CLAY EZEKIEL (1846-1930)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n14a15.html)