What were the things that got Walter Breen in trouble?

[midwest]

I was reading then post at PCGS when it reminded me of something. link

 

I read a few months ago something that hinted about Walter Breen and the courts or something of that nature. What exactly did Walter Breen do

 

 

 

 

Also for the record I don't believe Sheldon did anything wrong... except for the stealing part.

[Kitz]

To put it bluntly child molestation.

[HaydenTubbs]

That and didn't he get in trouble for running around in the nude? From what I've heard he was a great numismatice researcher but a very evil person in all other regards...

[HaydenTubbs]

And to quote Russ

"He and Breen are probably enjoying adjacent cells in hell."

[nwcs]

I can't believe you didn't think Sheldon did anything wrong more than stealing! Do a search on Breen on google and you'll find some testimony that shows how dispicable he was in his personal life. Russ was right.

[Oldtrader3]

Not only was Breen a child molester, which will probably get him to hell. Even his attribution work on coins is flawed (that may not get him to Hell).

[midwest]

I can't believe you didn't think Sheldon did anything wrong more than stealing! Do a search on Breen on google and you'll find some testimony that shows how dispicable he was in his personal life. Russ was right.

 

Ok I did some googleing I will second the Breen in hell idea.

 

Now then about what I said. I think we can all agree him stealing was bad. As far as everything else it sounds like he had some wacky ideas that proved to be false. It just happens they aren't "PC" so therefore we have to rid any mention of him.

 

While googleing him I found an intresting page. He might not have been fond of Jews. Of course he was old and by that time could have been seanile. Does anybody have any info of him saying weird things about the holocaust when younger or anything that would prove he might have been racist

 

It mainly sounds to me with the info I have now he just had skeletons in his closet. It then kills me that some people you can see them at PCGS now want to basicly wipe his name out of the hobby and history.

 

It is just like some schools such as those named after Thomas Jefferson being renamed because he owned slaves . It sounds to me with the info I have right now we shouldn't wipe him out because of things that aren't PC just like with jefferson and schools that have actually been renamed!

 

Now if someone could get proof when he was young he might have been a racist than we have something. Even then though it is still wrong to try and rename the scale. end of

[Oldtrader3]

I read Sheldon's skull size theory book years ago. It was pure racist bunk! That may be enough in itself to get him in trouble, besides being a thief.

[jtryka]

Joseph Kennedy was a known anti-semite and nazi sympathizer, so can we wipe the world clean of Kennedys? Please?

[nwcs]

Joseph Kennedy was a known anti-semite and nazi sympathizer, so can we wipe the world clean of Kennedys? Please?

[RWB]

Regarding Walter Breen –

 

Aside from his personal perversities, Breen had a number of difficulties in relation to numismatics. He is generally acknowledged as one of the most prolific numismatic writers and detailed researchers. Yet, his apparent emotional need for approval, recognition and validation seems to have led him to “extend” confirmable research into “hypothetical” research. Thus, he may have invented anecdotes to support his prior conclusions, or taken supportable facts and added his own speculation without telling anyone where fact ended and speculation began. He also appears to have issued letters of certification for coin varieties that did not exist, or certified coins as “proof” that were not as described. Additionally, his reliance on a prodigious but sometimes faulty memory, and the absence of source documentation make many of his conclusions suspect.

 

The overall result is that many of his attributions and assertions must be viewed with caution. Where a previous generation accepted Breen’s research as reliable, we now must independently verify his statements. His earlier research, supported by John Ford and the collaboration with Don Taxay is, in my opinion, better than the later work.

 

On a personal note, I met Breen a couple of times in the 1970s and 80s at large coin shows. The impression was of “weirdness” and “seedy” – not someone most folks would care to associate with. His knowledge of coins seemed to be vast, highly detailed and superbly interconnected, but I came away with an impression of “smoke and mirrors” along with the substance. In my own digging into original archives of the 1900-1922 period, very little of what Breen's pubished work had to say was supported by contemporary documentation. Some was borrowed from Don Taxay, some was personal speculation presented as fact, and some was observation that was impossible to trace back to the source.

 

It is going to take coin collecting a long time to unravel the knot.

[Oldtrader3]

I met and conversed with Breen once, at an ANA show, years ago. My personal impression of him was the same as RWB. IMHO, someone should take his large book though and clean the data up. There is a wealth of information in it.

[SilverDollarMan]

Joseph Kennedy was a known anti-semite and nazi sympathizer, so can we wipe the world clean of Kennedys? Please?

 

That would make the world TOO N!CE. And F&%* Breen too! SOB

[RWB]

Oldtrader3 - I agree. There is a lot of excellent information in Breen's encyc and his earlier monographs. The time and expense required to make the corrections in an orderly and thorough manner would be a real problem. It seems unlikely that any of the individuals or businesses making substantial profits in the current coin market would be willing to fund the task. Maybe over several years, enough solid infomration will be published to allow portions of the Breen Encyc to be updated and corrected. There is already a lot more info on some series, such as Morgan dollars and 3-cent nikels, that the Breen encyc contains.

[michael]

What were the things that got Walter Breen in trouble?

 

secret special sexy things done with under............. WAY under 18 year old boys

[DWLange]

I spoke frequently with Walter during the last ten years of his life. In a way I wish now that we hadn't lived in the same area, because so many of our interesting exchanges took place in person and have thus not survived as correspondence.

 

Walter was irrascible, untidy, highly opinionated and always quite interesting. His appearance was not too unusual for a longtime resident of Berkeley, though it became more distracting as he aged.

 

Though I now realize that his later writings, including his 1988 encyclopedia, were highly flawed, that doesn't diminish the pioneering work he did during the 1950s. Just look at any auction catalog of the period, other than the Ford/Breen New Netherlands catalogs, and you'll see just how incredibly worthless they were. The so-called professionals of the 1930-70 period knew almost nothing about numismatics other than how to make money at it, and the New Netherlands catalogs finally shamed them into hiring people who did know something or, at least, were willing to learn from others.

 

As to Walter's crimes, they were, unfortunately, a fact. I didn't become aware of them until they surfaced publicly, around 1991. He denied any guilt to me, claiming that he was being framed and falsely accused by his delusional daughter. Having never met the woman, I can't comment, but the facts of his multiple convictions speak for themselves.

 

I did once visit Walter in prison, a few months before his death. I did this mostly because I feared that no one else would. As it turned out, he had frequent visitors, mostly people he knew from the science fiction community. His ex-wife, Marian Zimmer Bradley, was a prominent sci-fi novelist, and he was probably more interested in this field than in numismatics during his later years.