John Reilly, Jr.

John Reilly Jr. (1876–1931) was educated as an engineer but primarily devoted himself to his interest in numismatics. He was an enthusiastic collector of East Asian coins at a time when this was very unusual in the United States, and built a very impressive collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese coins from the early use of cowries and spades up to the twentieth century.

Reilly served the ANS as Treasurer from 1915 to 1924 and kept his collection of more than 30,000 pieces at the Society’s headquarters. After his untimely death in 1931 and that of his wife in 1936, their daughter Frances Reilly (later Frances Reilly Baynes) donated his collection to the ANS in 1938. It constitutes the majority of the present East Asian Department.

For more information see the ANS Archives.