Wilhelm or Willem (Americanized as William) Von Bergen (1850-1916), was born on April 24, 1850, at Berne, Switzerland, son of Christian Von Bergen and Elizabeth Von Bergen.

He lived at various address including : 87 Court Street, Boston, Massachusetts; 89 Court Street, Boston, Massachusetts; 91 Scollay Square, Boston, Massachusetts; Numismatic Bank, WashingtonStreet, Boston.

He immigrated to America in 1871.

On September 16, 1872 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Gouldings New York City Directory (1877) : 1460, lists a William von Bergen working as a porter living at 401 West 18th Street, New York. In Scientific American, Volume 45, August27, (1881) : 138 he is reported to have invented a device that acts as both a camera and magic lantern, while residing at Andover, Massachusetts. In The Boston Directory of 1882 he is listed as anagent for Union Camera Company, living at 20 Conant Street, Roxbury, near W. E. Woodward. Von Bergen was a coin dealer well known through his book Rare Coins, and from his many advertisements.He is ANA Member No. 10. He is the publisher of Rare Coin Encyclopedia. He was a large man with a dark beard who spoke with a German accent and was also fluent in French and at times worked asa translator of French books.

Wilhem Von Bergen published Rare Coins of America in 1885, which borrowed from Dye's Coin Encyclopedia, first published in 1883, largely the work of Ebenezer Locke Mason, Jr, whopublished it under the name of his old friend and colleague during and after the Civil War, John Smith Dye.

On March 14, 1887, he married Hulda E. Schnorr (1865-1913), a German immigrant. They had three children. His marriage license records him as a boot maker.

In June 1890, Ebenezer Locke Mason, Jr., is the first to give us a report about Von Bergen in one of his signature ribald accounts. It relates an event that probably occurred five or six yearsearlier when Wilhelm was as green as a new mowed lawn as a coin dealer not even knowing the value of the 1802 half dime, something a beginner should have known.

Four and a half years later in his classic essay, Augustus Goodyear Heaton, "Tour Among the Coin Dealers" The Numismatist, January (1895) tells us :

In December 1914 he traveled to Cuba for his health.

"The 1917 Boston city directory lists Edwin (1890-1954), Harry (1888-1971), and William Jr. (1888-1931), all still living at 196 Chestnut Avenue, but it includes the following line---"Williamdied June 18, 1916."

He committed suicide by gas from his kitchen stove at 196 Chestnut Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston. Tragically he suffered severe pain and anguish over a long protracted illness and lost his will tolive. A very sad ending to the life of one of American numismatic history's significant men.

To read the complete article, see:
VON BERGEN, WILHELM(https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/www/numismaticmall-com/von-bergen-wilhelm)

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