Orosz, Joel
Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Graduated cum laude with B.A. from Kalamazoo College in 1979; M.A. magna cum laude in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1986 from Case Western Reserve University. Married Florence Elizabeth Upjohn. August 4, 1979. They have three daughters and a son. Employed as a museum curator 1983 to 1986; with W. K. Kellogg Foundation 1986 to 2001. Distinguished professor at Grand Valley State University after 2001.
Orosz collects numismatic literature and exonumia. He served on the board of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society after 1988 and as editor of The Asylum 1986 to 1988. He is a member of the Numismatic Literary Guild and the Rittenhouse Society. Fellow of the American Numismatic Society.
He contributed "The Printer's Devil" column to The Asylum after 1988. He wrote "Robert Gilmor, Jr. and the Cradle Age of American Numismatics" for The Numismatist in May 1990. Other articles have been published in The Canadian Numismatic Journal, Coins, NASC Quarterly and Rare Coin Review. Author of The Eagle That is Forgotten published in 1988. It tells the story of Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere.
Author, with Len Augsburger, of The Secret History of the First U. S. Mint (2011). He contributes the “Numismatic Bookie” column to Coin World afer June 2011. The book was honored as NLG "Book-of-the-Year: Award in 2017.
Co-author with Burdette and Augsburger of Truth Seeker: The Life of Eric P. Newman (2015). It received the 2016 NGL Award for “Book-of-the-Year.” Co-author with Augsburger and Smith of 1792: Birth of a Nation’s Coinage (2017). For this he recived a third NLG “Book-of-the-Year: Award in 2017.
He contributes the “Numismatic Bookie” column to Coin World after June 2011.
Orosz has also written books on museums, philanthropy and grantmaking.
In 2020 he shared the NLG Clemy Award with Len Augsburger.
In 2021 he was on the Coin World list of The Most Influential People in Numismatics 1960-2020. He was not influential during 2022, but made the list again in 2023 and 2024.bio by correspondence, 1991; WWA 04
3 entries found
Displaying records 1 — 3
1988The Eagle That is Forgotten: Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere, Founding Father of Numismatics
In 1960, Paul Ginsberg Sifton, published his Ph.D. dissertation, Pierre Eugène Du Simitière (1737-1784): Collector in Revolutionary America. This was followed by Edwin Wolf 2nd, Marie Elena Korey, eds., Quarter of a Millennium: The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1731-1981 (Philadelphia: The Library Company of Philadelphia,1981).Wolf and Korey wrote extensively about the first American coin auction sale and published a breathtakingly handsome full photograph of the 1785 auction broadside on page 44 of their very impressive and gorgeously illustrated huge thick tome. This was the best early description of the Du Simitière coin auction published by 1981. Their article on Du Simitière ran from pages 43-46, illustrating him as a magpie collector.
In 1985, John C. Van Horne, wrote and published the Exhibition Catalog celebrating the Bi-Centennial of Du Simitière's Museum in a catalog titled : Pierre Eugène Du Simitière : His American Museum 200 Years After. An Exhibition At the Library Company in Philadelphia. July to October 1985. Horne also published the full photograph of the 1785 auction broadside.
Dr. Joel Orosz learned about Du Simitière from secondary sources in 1982, examined his papers at The Library Company of Philadelphia in 1983, and published his doctoral dissertation, Curators and Culture, which he successfully defended in 1986. Orosz wrote an article, "Pierre Eugène Du Simitière: Museum Pioneer in America," in Museum Studies Journal, (1985) : 11-14, in addition to the present work in 1988. [Q. David Bowers, Joel. J. Orosz]
1/1/2015Truth Seeker: The Life of Eric P. Newman
This book is in-copyright and not available for full-view. Snippets will appear in NNP search results.
The book may be ordered from Heritage Auctions at https://ha.com/newman (link verified 7/2021).
8/16/20171792: Birth of a Nation's Coinage (Addenda)
Addenda to the book 1792: Birth of a Nation's Coinage, published by Ivy Press in 2016. This addenda includes portions of the original draft removed for space reasons, as well as pedigree corrections and updates.
The book itself may be purchased through Ivy Press at http://ha.com/boanc.
