Holland was born in Hidalgo County, Texas on the 21st day of March 1940 to Holland W. Wallace Jr. and Patricia Elliott Wallace. Hegraduated from Weslaco High School, at age 17, in the class of 1957. He had been a National Merit Scholar and later attended Rice University beforetransferring to the University of Texas School of Architecture.

Regardless of his academic achievements, Holland's real love was coins and history and economics related to coins. After working as anarchitectural draftsman for a few years he went to work for Stanley K. Rupert, a well known San Antonio coin dealer where he gained a wide generalknowledge of numismatics.

During this period he authored and published Central American Coinage Since 1821. In the words of the Central American numismatic scholarBrian Stickney:

COIN WORLD dated May 11, 1966 announced that Holland had joined the editorial staff of the Whitman Publishing Company in Racine, WI. Sometime in late 1966 or early 1967 Holland kindly invited Soterios Gardiakos and me to be his guests at Whitman. It was the first time I methim, and in the few hours we were together I learned many things previously unknown to me. He continued to be a source ofhelp and information to me and many others over the next fifty years.

During his ten years at Whitman, Holland authored and edited many articles and books to include two editions of A Guide Book of Mexican Coins -1822 to Date, Coins of the World 1750 - 1850 as well as working on the various books authored by R. S. Yeoman. Several of hisarticles were also published in the Whitman Numismatic Journal and other periodicals.

After the sale of Whitman to Western Publishing Holland moved to California and became a dealer specialized in Latin American coins. He issuedregular price lists and had bourse tables at many major coin shows often working with Freeman L. Craig Jr. He lived with Craig for a short perioduntil Freeman married Marney Albert in July of 1980. In conjunction with Craig, he finished a 250-page book entitled CROWN COINAGE OF THEAMERICAS which was never published due to the financial failure of the publisher. Based on letters from him and comments from others the decadehe spent in California was the happiest period of his life.

When he subsequently decided to further his education he returned to Texas to attend San Antonio College (now UTSA) acquiring a degree inInformation Systems. He subsequently returned to Weslaco to help his aging parents take care of his handicapped brother. With the death of his motherin 1994 his burden increased as there was now only one body to take care of a handicapped brother and a rapidly aging father. After the death of hisfather in 2001 the complete management of the family trusts fell upon Holland's shoulders. By this time Holland was also in failing health sothe burden was two-fold if not four-fold.

With failing health, and increased responsibility Holland commenced his long period of decline through no fault of his own. A flood in 2016destroyed about ten thousand pounds of numismatic literature which must have been heartbreaking to a person that had built one of the finest,privately held Latin American Numismatic libraries in the world. The remaining four tons or so of Latin American numismatic literature havebeen moved by Freeman Craig, the executor of Holland's will, to the establishment of Alan Workman in Orlando who will auction them off in 2019for the benefit of the estate.

His last years passed largely in pain and he was often bed ridden for weeks and months at a time. Nevertheless he continued his research and emailcontacts, as long as he was still able, with the friends and associates that he had acquired over six decades as a professional numismatist andresearcher.

Sad to see another great numismatist pass away but ashes to ashes and dust to dust - rest in peace my friend! You will be missed by many!

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
HOLLAND WALLACE (1940-2018) (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n42a14.html)
NOTES ON THE DEARLY DEPARTED(http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n43a06.html)