William Woodin: A Preeminent Collector

Numismatists are known for being secretive, staying out of the public eye to protect their collections from competition or theft. In contrast, William Woodin was one of the most public figures of the early 20th century, influencing business, pop culture, and even government legislation, all while building one of the greatest specialized coin collections and saving thousands of numismatic rarities from the melting pot.

The Industrialist

William Hartman Woodin was born in Berwick, Pennsylvania, on May 27, 1868. His father was a successful industrialist in the railroad industry and ensured that Woodin studied under strict tutelage at the New York Latin School. On the other hand, his mother, Mary Louise, saw him only during the winter and spoiled him. These contrasting influences helped shape Woodin into a studious, sprightly, and sometimes troublesome young man: it is said that, when given $10,000 at the age of 16, he went bankrupt within six months. 

Despite his eccentricities, Woodin attended Columbia University’s School of Mines and joined the family profession upon graduation. However, he found his job uninteresting and his father to be controlling. He married in 1889 and moved to Europe, where he worked as a journalist while studying music and art. Upon returning to the States, Woodin quickly showed himself to be a brilliant businessman, disowning his father to become the president of a competing firm, which promptly grew under his leadership. Eventually, he bought his father’s firm and turned the American Car and Foundry Company into one of the largest railroad manufacturing firms in the world.

The Influencer

By the turn of the century, Woodin was known as more than a wealthy industrialist. Well-traveled, energetic, and charismatic, he bought a 5th Avenue penthouse on Millionaires’ Row, where he quite literally lived in the center of high society at the turn of the century. It should come as little surprise that Woodin leveraged his wealth to pursue his passion for music. He dabbled in classical music, even hiring musicians to play the five concertos he wrote. 

Additionally, he was a prolific writer of children’s music, even writing a successful book titled Raggedy Ann’s Sunny Songs in collaboration with Raggedy Ann’s creator, Johnny Gruelle, who showed his gratitude by naming a character Little Wooden Willie. Because of his wealth and passion for art, Woodin naturally gravitated to the hobby of coins, specifically pattern coinage, a series generally considered to contain some of the most artistic and complex designs in American numismatics.

The Collector

Woodin started collecting in 1888 and quickly built some of the greatest sets of the time, including an impressive collection of early half eagles (gold $5), proof coinage, and a nearly complete collection of $3 gold pieces. As he gained prominence and connections in business, his collection benefited. Struck as patterns in 1877, the $50 half unions were minted because of western states’ mining economies’ push for the mintage of more specie. The U.S. Mint created six varieties of the half union, but only one gold striking in each of the two designs. 

Few knew any existed in private hands until John Haseltine and Stephen Nagy brokered a deal between Col. A.L. Snowden and William Woodin in 1909, who bought the pair for a record-breaking $10,000 each. The publicity created by selling these “unauthorized” coins forced the government to demand them back from Col. Snowden, who had originally bought them along with hundreds of other patterns from the mint. Woodin, predictably, was reluctant to return the coins to Snowden without compensation. 

Woodin, Snowden, and Mint Director Abram Andrew ultimately decided Woodin could be repaid in pattern coins from Snowden’s and the mint’s collections, including the 1872 Amazonian gold set, 1874 Bickford eagles (gold $10), and 1875 “Sailor Head” gold patterns, among other things. Over the next two years, Woodin used these coins as the foundation for what would become the greatest private pattern collection of all time, which was the basis for the reference book on patterns he and Edgar Adams published in 1913. Woodin sold his collection in a star-studded auction by Thomas Elder in 1911, while duplicates and common pieces were sold in other auctions and fixed-price lists. Although he largely stopped collecting, his collection made waves that can still be felt today.

The Legislator

Just over a decade after the auction of his collection, Woodin became chairman and president of the American Locomotive Company in 1925, but even this position is not his legacy. Because of his extensive business experience and connections, he was appointed director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1927 to 1932, where he witnessed the collapse of the stock market. Woodin was a close friend and supporter of Franklin Roosevelt during the election of 1932, and he was rewarded with a job no one else wanted: stabilizing the world economy as Treasury Secretary. 

Because speculators were using heavily leveraged funds to invest in stocks, banks took heavy losses when the stock market crashed on Black Tuesday, and by early 1933, many banks were running low on gold to disburse to depositors. Once world banks caught on to the situation, they threatened to withdraw their funds, which would cripple the American banking system and make economic recovery next to impossible. Woodin begged state governors to call bank holidays to buy time for Roosevelt to be inaugurated: they reluctantly agreed. A mere 36 hours after taking office, Roosevelt signed Proclamation 2039 at 1 o’clock on Monday, March 6, suspending bank transactions.

Woodin worked tirelessly over the next few days, and on March 9, 1933, the president signed the Emergency Banking Act of 1933. The act effectively suspended the gold standard and prohibited the export of gold internationally, requiring banks to have a minimum amount of silver deposits on hand upon reopening. Just over a month later, Executive Order 6102 required banks and citizens to exchange their gold for silver specie or paper money, which was later codified in the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which also raised the price of gold to $35 an ounce, effectively stealing millions of dollars from those who turned in their gold. Not all gold was required to be turned in, however. Previously a collector of proof gold, Woodin ensured that a clause exempted rare and unusual coins, allowing collectors to preserve thousands of collectible pieces for future generations. Unexpectedly, this was his last act of service to the numismatic community; he resigned on December 20, 1933, and died on May 3, 1934, due to a neck infection he developed during his frenetic work during the crisis.

Conclusion

Woodin stands out as a monumental figure in numismatics, surpassing many of his contemporaries in both the depth of his collection and his impact on future numismatists. As a distinguished public figure, he drew significant attention to the field of numismatics through his remarkable acquisition and eventual trade of the iconic 1877 gold half unions. The auction of his exceptional pattern collection, along with the publication of the Adams-Woodin pattern reference book, revolutionized the way patterns were perceived and collected within the numismatic community. Furthermore, he dedicated the final months of his life to crafting pivotal legislation that not only safeguarded the U.S. banking system but also protected countless invaluable gold coins from being melted. In total, William Hartman Woodin was truly a preeminent numismatist of his time.