“People don’t realize how much information and history can be stored in such small objects,” Brenna Henry, technical service librarian said.
One person who does realize is sophomore Connor Gleason. Gleason began dealing rare coins in the summer of 2012 as a way to supplement his summer income before coming to Hillsdale.
“I was doing pretty well for myself, but I was still looking for ways to make some money, have some disposable income, a nest egg,” Gleason said, “The rent is too damn high, man.”
Gleason realized that if he wanted to make his venture profitable he would have to educate himself about his trade—a history major’s zeal for learning made this easy—and he began to research the coins in his possession.
“I came into a huge collection of coins,” Gleason said, “and that sparked an interest for me, because you know I’m a history major, I enjoy studying history, and currency kind of tells a story of a country, of its history.”
Gleason gave the divided, postwar Germany as an example.
“I’ve sold coins from both sides of the wall,” Gleason said. “Just based on what the coins are made of you can tell how the economy was doing at the time, what was the focus of this military or that military, this government or that government.”
Gleason continued to find new coins to sell, mostly just by chance.
“I come into them in everyday transactions, just people who don’t know what they have and they’ll trade it away like regular old coinage.”
When Gleason got to Hillsdale, he found much less time to keep selling coins. No surprise: Gleason works for SAGA, Inc., takes part in weekly NERF wars, works in the Sage Center for the Arts as a lighting student supervisor as well as playing in the upcoming show “The Devil’s Disciple.” He spends his free moments running weekend movie nights in Simpson residence. He also occasions schoolwork.
“I came here and I found I still had a lot of coins,” Gleason explained. “Being too busy to sell during the school year, and just because of the shear number that I had I figured it was a smart decision to donate to the Hillsdale heritage center.”
Last year Gleason donated over 350 coins, mostly from European countries, to the Mossey Library Archives, and more donations are planned.
Gleason’s collection supplements the library’s current Alwin C. Carus collection of ancient, medieval, and modern coins from all over the world. Like the Carus collection, Gleason’s donation will eventually be sorted through and archived, with high-quality photos available through the Mossey library homepage.
Library Director Dan Knoch explained that the Carus coins are a great resource for the school, with coins being used in classes by professors, travelling to San Diego for the Free Market Forum, or simply displayed in the Heritage Room, which Knoch says helps draw more collections to campus.
“These things grow out of what is seen,” Knoch explained. “Having the large Carus coin collection is attracting others—what we’ve done with it is very nice, we’re looking to do that with Gleason’s.”
“It’s great that we’re getting other collections like Connor’s,” said Henry, who taught a seminar on the history of coinage last semester.
When asked if he still works with coins while at school, Gleason mentioned that though it occasionally connects to class discussion, he doesn’t have time during the year to keep up with it.
“It’s really more of a summer project,” Gleason said, “but I’ve been doing this long enough that if something is valuable, extremely valuable in my hands, I’ll be able to tell you right away.”