Jeremiah Colburn (12 January 1815 – 30 December 1891) was a Boston numismatist. He also collected various other things.

Biography

He lived his whole life in Boston. He made his living first (1830) as a clerk, then as a merchant (until 1852), and eventually was appointed by President

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

as an appraiser for the United States Customs Service (1852–1860). He started his collecting activity with coins, and afterward turned his attention to shells, minerals, etc., and finally to books, autographs, manuscripts, portraits, and engravings relating to the United States, including continental money and the more recent issues of paper tokens. In 1840, he began a collection of

bank note A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

s. In 1857 he contributed articles to the ''Historical Magazine'' on U.S. coins and coinage, which were followed for several years by short articles on these subjects in ''Notes and Queries''. He was one of the founders of the Boston Numismatic Society (1860), had been its curator, vice president, and president (1865–1891), and was one of the editors of the ''American Journal of Numismatics'' (1870–1891). He founded the

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(1858), was elected to the

New England Historic Genealogical Society The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is the oldest and largest genealogical society in the United States, founded in 1845. NEHGS provides family history services through its staff, original scholarship, website,Bostonian Society The Bostonian Society was a non-profit organization that was founded in 1881 for the purpose of preventing the Old State House (built in 1713) from being "moved brick by brick"

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Family

His parents were Calvin Colburn and Caroline Sibyl Lakin. His grandfather served in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

. He married Eliza Ann Blackman in 1846.

Notes

References

* * This article in turn cites: ** ''Biographies of Notable Americans'', 1904 ** ''Descendants of Edward Colburn∨Coburn, Sixth Generation'', pp. 143–144. {{DEFAULTSORT:Colburn, Jeremiah 1815 births 1891 deaths People from Boston American numismatists People from Massachusetts 19th-century American businesspeople