Walter Breen
About the Author
Walter Henry Breen, Jr. was born September 5, 1930, in San Antonio, Texas and learned to read and write be-fore age three. He led a Dickensian childhood as an orphanage inmate and later in two monasteries. Breen became interested in coins in 1947. His first memorable appearance in numismatic circles was at the 1948 American Numismatic Association convention in Boston where he entertained onlookers with his excellent piano playing. Breen was eventually introduced to Wayte Raymond, Stuart Mosher, Dr. William H. Sheldon, Homer Downing, and Dorothy Paschal. Sheldon became his mentor while Raymond gave him his "first real job." Raymond commissioned him to research mint records in the National Archives (where Breen learned enough about minting processes to become the first professional authenticator, for a fee, of United States coins). Raymond also published many of his research findings and eventually appointed him as the technical editor of the Standard Catalogue of United States Coins. In the spring of 1951, Mosher appointed him as the acting editor of The Numismatist. After studying tens of thousands of early large cents, Breen collaborated with Dr. Sheldon on Penny Whimsy in 1958.
Longtime friend Richard H. Rosichan related: "During the 1950s, Walter's New York City apartment was a gathering place both for a select group of friends and numismatists, and also of interesting numismatic specimens. There was always some Sara Lee chocolate cake in the 'fridge,' and good classical records available to play. Walter was the only true Renaissance man I ever knew; he had expert knowledge in dozens of fields, from science to literature to art and music to the social sciences, and was reasonably accomplished on the piano." (Letter to Mark Borckardt, October 23, 1995.)
As the first student at The Johns Hopkins University to complete a four-year curriculum in just 10 months, he graduated with a Phi Beta Kappa key (Humanities) in 1952.
While at Johns Hopkins, Breen worked part time for various coin dealers and earned grocery money by cherry picking rarities that he sold.
From September 1952 to September 1960, Breen worked for New Netherlands Coin Co., Inc., researching and assisting John J. Ford, Jr. with the writing of many descriptions for their auction catalogues. Meanwhile, he was a contributor of articles to The Numismatist and Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine. During this time he also completed a premedical course at Columbia University; Years later in 1966, the University of California at Berkeley awarded him a Master of Arts degree in Sociology.
Numismatics was only one of many fields that Walter Breen pursued during his distinguished career. He mastered such languages as Latin, Classical Greek, French, German, Spanish, and Italian and was acknowledged as one of the great experts in the field of baroque and medieval music. Aside from writing nearly three dozen monographs and volumes on almost every aspect of American numismatics, Walter Breen authored, under various names, manuscripts on such diverse subjects as sexology, economics, psychopharmacology, astrology, musicology, and the occult. He was also much honored, having received the American Numismatic Association Heath Award, the Fifth award in Poet Laureateship of California, and an honorary vice-presidency of the Rittenhouse Society.
Breen was a contributor to the numismatic section of the Encyclopedia Britannica and served as a consultant to the Treasury Department and the Smithsonian Institution.
Walter Breen was married to celebrated science-fiction writer Marion Zimmer Bradley. They have two children, Patrick and Moira, both musicians. Walter Breen passed away on April 28, 1993, from cancer.