Richard Sperry Yeoman (born Richard S. Yeo; August 15, 1904 – November 9, 1988) was an American

commercial artist Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...

and

coin collector Coin collecting is the collecting of coins or other forms of minted legal tender. Coins of interest to collectors often include those that were in circulation for only a brief time, coins with mint errors, and especially beautiful or historic ...

who marketed coin display boards for

Whitman Publishing Whitman Publishing is an American book publishing company which started as a subsidiary of the Western Printing & Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. In about 1915, Western began printing and binding a line of juvenile books for the Hammi ...

. Hired by that company in 1932, he redesigned the boards in 1940 to the fold-out model that is currently sold.

Career

He is best known for compiling two authoritative coin

price guide The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvio ...

s, ''

A Handbook of United States Coins ''A Guide Book of United States Coins (The Official Red Book)'', first compiled by R. S. Yeoman in 1946, is a price guide for coin collectors of coins of the United States dollar, commonly known as the Red Book. Along with its sister publicat ...

'' (also known as the "Blue Book", published in 1942) and ''

A Guide Book of United States Coins ''A Guide Book of United States Coins (The Official Red Book)'', first compiled by R. S. Yeoman in 1946, is a price guide for coin collectors of coins of the United States dollar, commonly known as the Red Book. Along with its sister publicatio ...

'' (or the "Red Book" or ''The Official Red Book''), first published in 1946. R. S. Yeoman retired in 1970, and was succeeded by his assistant,

Kenneth Bressett Kenneth Edward Bressett (born October 5, 1928) is an American numismatist. He has actively promoted the study and hobby of numismatics for over 50 years. His published works on the subject cover a wide range of topics and extend from short articl ...

. Yeoman (with Bressett) is still listed as the author of each edition of the books.

Personal life

Yeoman was married to Marion Junkerman.

Awards and honors

Yeoman received the

Farran Zerbe Memorial Award The Chester L. Krause Memorial Distinguished Service Award (formerly the Farran Zerbe Memorial Award and ANA Distinguished Service Award) is the highest honor conferred by the American Numismatic Association.American Numismatic Association The American Numismatic Association (ANA) is an organization founded in 1891 by George Francis Heath. Located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it was formed to advance the knowledge of numismatics (the study of coins) along educational, histori ...

, in 1956.

References

External links

Whitman history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeoman, Richard S. 1904 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American historians American numismatists