After the story last week about bank exhibitions, there was strong public demand for anotherstory about one of the exhibitors.

Cyrus H. Phillips was born in New Jersey on December 28, 1905, the son of William A. (1874- )and Hattie Van de Sandt Phillips (1876- ). He was married to Hazel and had two sons, Cyrus Jr.and Wayne who both went into the coin business.

Phillips began his banking career with the Seaboard National Bank of New York in 1929. He wasemployed with the United States Trust Co. of New York for 15 years. By 1951 he had moved toCalifornia and was affiliated with the Monrovia branch of Bank of America. Later he was withthe public relations department for Bank of America. Still later he was a business developmentrepresentative for the bank.

Phillips joined the ANA in 1944 as member 10100 from Tenafly, New Jersey. His ads began toappear in The Numismatist a year later under the name of Cyrus H. Phillips. The ads offeredcatalogs for mail bid sales. In 1947 he was awarded a blue ribbon for participation in NationalCoin Week.

Phillips used his coin collection to create an exhibit for the bank. The first display was on June 5,1954, at the Monrovia, California, branch of the Bank of America. The bank arranged for apermanent loan of one of their sets of colored slides from the ANA. Phillips took his exhibit andthe ANA slides to programs around the community.

In 1956, the Bank of America reported on their educational program Their exhibit and colored slides provided by the ANA had been shown to45,976 students and teachers at 168 schools plus 1483 adults at 26 different service clubs for atotal showing of 47,459. Attendance dropped off over the next few years. In 1965, the ANAreported that the program had been seen by one-quarter million people in the previous ten years.

A 1959 item in the Press Telegram (and others) described Phillips as past president of theAmerican Numismatic Society. The ANS History does not support that claim.

He was a member of the American Numismatic Association, a member of the CaliforniaNumismatic Association and a charter member of the Southern California NumismaticAssociation.

In 1990, Rare Coin Review reported that Phillips Sr. had given more than a thousand talks onnumismatics between the 1950's and his death on August 20, 1989.

Cyrus H. Phillips, Jt. was born in New Jersey on February 24, 1931, the older son of Cyrus H.Phillips, Sr. He married Hope Hobbs Eckhout in 1961. Their children were Patty and David.

He began collecting stamps at age 4 and coins at age 11. He opened a shop with his dad andbrother in 1960. He opened S. C. Coin & Stamp as a corporation on September 8, 1976.

He joined the ANA in 1961 as K-48248. In the ANA he was generally known as Cy Phillips, Jr.

A 1975 article stated, In another article he was described as a professional lecturer.In 1978-79, he conducted four mail bid sales in The TAMS Journal.

In 1984, The Golden Rain Beach Leisure World News started,

In 1991 he claimed to have given more than 1500 talks in the past fifteen years.

He died on December 11, 2001.

Wayne C. Phillips was born in New Jersey on August 26, 1942, the younger son of Cyrus H.Phillips, Sr. He married Alice C. Criswell on December 31, 1963.

In 1960, he was the general manager for S. C. Stamp and Coin Company working for his brother,Cy Phillips, Jr. He also did business as Wayne C. Phillips Rare Coins with an address in PhillipsRanch, California. He specialized in ancient coins and was noted for his collection of RomanSestertii.

Wayne C. Phillips contributed a column to Coin World,

He died in March 2014 and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Covina, California.

Presenting an educational program to non-numismatists may be a service to the hobby. It mayencourage others to pursue coin collecting. Every time the speaker is mentioned in the paper, it isfree publicity. The public contact may provide leads to buy collections. Someone who attends thetalk may remember the speaker five years later when they have to deal with an estate liquidation.Self-promotion is a sound business strategy.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NUMISMATIC EXHIBITIONS AT U.S. BANKS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n17a13.html)