Born and died at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Employed in the Pension Office in Washington, D. C. He collected autographs, stamps and old china.

Author with Ed Frossard of Varieties of United States Cents of the Year 1794 in 1893. This was the standard reference at the time and introduced "Hays" numbers for the varieties. Although they have been superseded by Sheldon, the numbers are still used occasionally as a cross reference. The book was reprinted by Gilbert and Elder in 1910.

Hays assembled a set of die varieties of cents of 1794. He marked the edges of his cents with Maris variety numbers in white ink. The set was sold to Charles Steigerwalt in 1900. Steigerwalt merged the collection with the Phelps collection to form the Hays-Phelps set. It was offered for sale for $1000 in the August 1906 issue of The Numismatist. The set was purchased by Charles Zug and broken up in a Lymon Low auction March 7, 1907.

obit: AJN 34 Jul 1899 page 29