SHINKLE, CHARLES HUMBERSTONE

Copyright 2011-2018 John N. Lupia, III

Fig. 1. Photo of Charles H. Shinkle published in Percy Frazer Smith, Notable Men of Pittsburg and Vicinity (1901) : 107

Charles Humberstone Shinkle (1852-1920), was born April 25, 1852, at Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, son of Charles Shinkle, a merchant and native of Pennsylvania, and Nancy Zinsmeister Shinkle, a native of Switzerland.

In his youth he was a collector of coins. As a very young boy American cents radically changed from 1856 to 1864. This sparked an interest in United States cents and the die patterns behind them. During his lifetime he amassed one of the most complete collections of U. S. Pattern Pieces of United States Cents, sold after his demise in 1932.

In the 1868 Pittsburgh Directory he is listed as a collector living at 129 River Avenue, Pittsburgh.

In 1878, he worked as a bookkeeper at Wilcox, Shinkle & Miller, a grist and saw mill company, 39 Water Street, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1885, he joined the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society.

On October 2, 1889, he married Adelaide Benney, daughter of James Benney, Jr., and Anne Elizabeth Friend Benney, at the Bellefield Presbyterian Church. She was a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, descended from Christopher Doughty, Dr. William Henry Stoey, John Jacob Schaffner and Jacob Scaffner of Pennsylvania. They had four children : Adelaide, Charles H. (1892-1968), James, and Ann.

He entered the firm of Myers, Schoyer Printing Company, and worked there for several years. After the death of William Schoyer, Charles H. Shinkle took over his interest in the company renaming the firm the Myers & Shinkle Company. Shinkle became a printer and bookbinder who made both books and stationery. By 1905, he became president of the Myers & Shinkle Company, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

He was the president of the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society.

Fig. In the June 1904 issue of The Numismatist, page 195, he ran a half page ad selling U. S. Cents.

In 1905 he began to publish a 16 page quarto United States Coin Values and Lists with values based on prices realized from coin auction sales. The book was illustrated with photographs of coins, especially gold in the John A. Beck collection. It sold for $1.00

A second edition was published in July 1909. This advertisement appeared in the July 1909 issue of The Numismatist, page 220. A third edition was published in October 1910.

In October 1905 he became ANA member No. 731.

Fig. Shinkle's advertisement in the October-November 1910 Numismatist, page 253.

Figs. The October 1910 edition (3rd edition) of United States Coin Values and Lists published by Charles H., Shinkle, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The photographic illustrations of coins were courtesy of Henry Chapman. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library. Ex-Charles Davis.

Fig. Charles H. Shinkle correspondence with the Chapman Brothers sending in bids while staying at Hotel Riverside, postmarked May 17, 1906, Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

He lived at 810 South Negley Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Fig. Charles H. Shinkle correspondence with Henry Chapman, Jr., August 27, 1912, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

By 1910 he had studied over a hundred different Moffat & Company fifty dollar slugs and devised the list of varieties, which was published in the American Journal of Numismatics.

From 1914-1915 he was second-vice-president of the ANA.

He died of myocarditis with hypostatic pneumonia on February 10, 1920, at the Homeopathic Hospital, Pittsburg. He is buried in Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

His collection of U. S. Pattern Pieces of United States Cents was sold posthumously on April 26, 1932, by J. C. Morgenthau & Co., sale #278.