The Mysterious Mrs. Marshall: An Early American Numismatist

Listed in Attinelli, for the year 1864, "Mrs. Marshall" has long been known as a numismatic name, but her precise identity has eludedresearchers. "Mrs. Marshall" has heretofore been associated with a lone catalog from 1864, and even the catalog itself raises more questions than itanswers. This document recently came across the scanners at the Newman Numismatic Portal (courtesy of Dave Hirt). It lists an extensive collection ofancient, foreign, and U.S. coins, but it is unclear whether this is a fixed price list or an auction catalog.

To the rescue comes John Lupia, who has provided a helpful biography of Mrs. Marshall at his Numismatic Mall site. Briefly summarizing, Francis Maria Keeler (1810-1879) married Dr. Robert S. Marshall in 1832 and the two settled in Hobart, NY. The doctor, bitten by "gold fever," traveled to California where he died in 1850. Mrs. Marshall appears to have continued the collection, as it contained pieces struck after 1850.

Dave Hirt, in 1996, noted that "Mrs. Marshall" was listed as a buyer in a priced and named copy of Bangs' J.N.T. Levick sale (1865). This alone qualifies Mrs. Marshall as one of the earliest female numismatists in the United States, and to that we may be able the title of "coin dealer" as well, although this is less clear. While the cover of the Marshall catalog indicates "for sale," Lupia raises the possibility that the catalog was prepared in conjunction with an exhibit at the annual Delaware County Agricultural Fair, where it is known that she regularly exhibited.

Link to John Lupia's biography of Mrs. Marshall:
https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/www/numismaticmall-com/marshall-frances-maria-keeler

Link to the Mrs. Marshall catalog on the Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/515883

Link to Dave Hirt's Asylum article on Mrs. Marshall:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/417?page=44

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: MARCH 31, 2016: PART 1 (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n14a21.html)