Inside PCGS: Keith Dewald

My journey in numismatics and art goes back to my childhood. I was about seven years old when my grandmother gave me a blue Whitman folder album containing about 10 Buffalo Nickels. These coins were less than Fine, and some had dates that were barely visible. Here I was a little kid in the 1980s, and I remember thinking, “Wow, this is what nickels used to look like? Money looked so different than what I got in my change today.”

But those Buffalo Nickels really lassoed me into coin collecting. Growing up on the frontier vistas of the Eastern Sierras, I became obsessed with Western culture – and it only helped that when I got to stay overnight with my grandparents I’d spend the next morning watching Western films with my grandfather, who was a Western buff himself. So, it’s little wonder that my obsession with Western culture fed my love for Buffalo Nickels, which would later parlay into other areas of numismatics.

As I grew up, I also spent a lot of time with my uncle, who was a phenomenal artist and graphic designer. I was impressed with how talented he was, and that rubbed off on me. I was also drawn to art, and it was really one of the few subjects I was good at back when I was in school. So, I’d take all the art classes I could, and I excelled at them. By the late 1990s, my family encouraged me to get into graphic design, but I really didn’t put much thought into it then as a career – it seemed there wasn’t much money in it. Of course, this is back when fine art still ruled, before Photoshop and digital cameras really came into the fore commercially. Not sure what I really wanted to do, I ventured into a variety of pursuits. I was a personal trainer, a boxing coach, a nutrition store salesperson… It didn’t dawn on me until much later – my late 20s – when I thought, “Hmm… Maybe I should pursue graphic design.”

So, I did. I applied to a good graphic arts school, took out loans, attended school full time, had an internship, and worked full time as a gym manager. The amount of homework graphic arts students get is insane. I didn’t get a moment’s rest. There was a point where I thought, “oh my goodness, how do I have time to do all of this?” I dreamed about just having a day to sit on the couch and watch TV. Somehow with zero free time, I reached the finish line – in four years, with honors. I scored some amazing design jobs in the years that followed my graduation in 2014.

When the opportunity opened at PCGS where I could lead the creative side, I was all in. I remember thinking, even before I began working for the company, that if I ever got a job in numismatics, I’d want it to be working for PCGS. I always felt they were the epitome of numismatic organizations. I’m grateful for all the incredible projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on for PCGS… The launch of Near-Field Communication (NFC) anticounterfeiting technology in our holders, the company’s 35th anniversary campaign in 2021, massive redesigns of the PCGS.com website, the launch of the PCGS online submission center, the overhaul of our company’s magazine and subsequent launch of PCGS Insider, and the recent launch of ancients grading are just some of those achievements.

I was also involved with creating labels for the Harry Bass Collection (which was exhibited for years at the American Numismatic Association Money Museum) contained some of the coolest pieces I’d ever seen – Schoolgirl and Amazonian Dollars, a variety of Flying Eagles, and so many other Judd patterns. And now I’m getting to run with the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection. It’s an honor to be entrusted with a project of this magnitude from start to finish, hands on all the way. And this collection contains a previously unpublished Class III 1804 Dollar? I mean… C’mon! It’s stuff like this that makes my heart full.

Even though I still stay crazy busy with large-scale design projects for PCGS, I have a little bit of downtime – at least a little more than I did back in my days as a graphic arts student! And that gives me the chance to expand my coin collection. I’m actively building a date set of Capped Bust Half Dollars. But my long-term project – the one that really lights my fire – is working on a set of tokens, medals, and coins celebrating the Wild West. It’s mostly 19th-century material, though there are some early 20th-century pieces in there. It features cowboys, rodeos, the Gold Rush, horses – you name it. And I’m so grateful to have buddies who will find something cool – and Western themed – and say, “Hey, Keith, I saw this and thought of you… It’s yours.”

I have a lot of friends who look out for me and surprise me with things that really fit my collection. Maybe one of the coolest pieces? An 1894-O Morgan Dollar counterstamped with the name of Bob Fitzsimmons, a Cornish professional boxer who was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first champion boxer in three divisions! Fitzsimmons famously countered Irish professional boxer Tom Sharkey in an 1896 bout in San Francsico that was refereed by none other than Wyatt Earp, the famous Western lawman. Fitzsimmons caught Sharkey in the chest with his “solar plexus punch.” A stunned Earp ruled the incapacitating hit by favored Fitzsimmons a low blow, calling the tilt for Sharkey amid boos from the thousands of spectators.

But that tie-in between boxing, the West, and numismatics? I mean, this 1894-O Morgan Dollar brings so many of these things together into one unique coin – the true prize of my collection. Still, there is another coin I pine for – a Judd-168 or Judd-173, which is an 1855 large cent pattern that carries a vicious-looking flying eagle on the obverse and a wreath reverse similar to what is seen on the back of the Braided Hair Cent.

Maybe one day my collection will be labeled with a Keith Dewald Wild West pedigree, which would be a wonderful culmination of my decades in the hobby. But I’m doing what I do in numismatics for another important reason. I’m not your typical coin collector. I’m an alternative-looking dude with tattoos who is a creative. I want to help open more doors for people who may not fit the traditional mold to find a home in numismatics. And I want to encourage more people to see the value of art in our hobby and help them realize it’s a paying profession. There is no email, no magazine, no brochure, no label without design.

I also hope to leave the hobby and its people in a better place. There are folks on social media who post a drawing they did of an Indian Cent or Capped Bust Half, tagging me in it and writing, “Keith, you inspired me to pick up the pencil and draw again.” And that makes me so happy. I feel like I’m doing something right, even if it’s inspiring someone to get in touch with art. When they’re drawing something that’s numismatic, it’s even more special.