Henry Grunthal curator correspondence, 1967-1969

Biographical Note

Henry Grunthal (1905-2001) of the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City was born in Cologne, Germany, and was the son of numismatist and medal publisher Hugo Grunthal. He joined the American Numismatic Society (ANS) staff in 1953 as assistant to the chief curator and moved up to the position of curator of European and modern coins, a position he held until his retirement in 1973. His main activities at the ANS were building, labeling, and organizing the collections and assisting members with the identification and appraisal of coins, paper money, and medals. He was educated at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, the University of Jena, and at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he studied archaeology and art history. He also studied numismatics under Kurt Regling in Berlin and Geheimrat Pick in Gotha. In 1938 he emigrated to the United States from Germany to work for Stack's Rare Coins in New York City. After retirement he was an independent numismatic consultant in New York City, where he also conducted auctions with Edward Gans at Numismatic Fine Arts. He wrote several articles for publications such as The Numismatist and Coin World and co-authored two books, Carolingian Coinage and The Coinage of Peru. He was awarded the American Numismatic Association Medal of Merit in 1970. Grunthal also received an ANS medal marking fifty years of continuous membership in 1979. He had been a member of the American Numismatic Association since 1929 and was active in both the Bronx Coin Club and the New York Numismatic Club, both of which he served as president.