Numismatics Archives List

Born at Catasauqua, near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Moved to Philadelphia in 1818 to learn piano making and was employed in that field until 1869. Married twice and had six children.

Mickley began to collect cents while searching for one from his birth year. He is sometimes called "the father of American numismatics." On April 13, 1867, he lost $16,000 worth of coins in a burglary. His remaining collection was consigned for sale by Woodward, October 28 to November 2, 1867. It included an 1804 dollar purchased by Lilliendahl for $750. At the time, this was believed to set a price record for a single coin. Mickley had obtained the coin from a bank teller who had received the dollar as a deposit.

Mickley wrote the pamphlet Dates of United States Coins and Their Degree of Rarity. He purchased discarded coin dies sold by the Mint as scrap metal. He collaborated with Cogan to produce restrikes of the 1804 and 1823 cents. They also produced a small number of restrike 1810 cents, believed to have been made about 1868 or 1869. The cent dies were later sold to Montroville Dickeson and then Captain Haseltine. He was an honorary member of the Boston Numismatic Society and the American Numismatic Society. He died in Philadelphia at the home of his doctor.

An auction of remnants from the collection was conducted by Mason on November 5-6, 1878. A group of about 20 coin dies was cataloged for sale but was confiscated prior to the auction. An investigation produced strong evidence that dies for the Adams medal had been legitimately sold to Mickley through the Eckfeldt family. It was reported that the government paid the estate the estimated fair value of the confiscated dies. Two additional groups of remainders were sold at auction by Haseltine in 1879 and by Woodward in 1883.

Mickley was the subject of several medals. One, dated 1867, depicts Mickley on the obverse and bears the reverse legend President of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia.

Mickley traveled extensively through Europe. In Stockholm he met Lea Ahlborn and agreed to sit for a portrait that Ahlborn would engrave on a medal. The medal was produced by the Swedish Mint about 1879. Silver medals were struck in Sweden. The dies were later brought to America, where bronze medals were struck and sold for $2.50. The medal was reissued about 1958.

bio: Attinelli, p. 49; NN 8/19/63 (photo); CW/NM 3/17/76; NUM/NIN May 1995

obit: AJN 12 (April 1878), pp. 103-105 [Pete Smith, American Numismatic Biographies]