Jewish money expert explores heritage, history

Scholars and collectors are turning the negative stereotype about Jews and money on its head.

Take Don Kagin, for instance. He said he is the only American with a Ph.D. in numismatics (the study of money). He is also president of the nation’s second-oldest numismatics firm, Kagin’s, in Tiburon, where he lives. And he’s certainly passionate about money.

But it’s the coins themselves he’s interested in.

“(Jews) have always been merchants, and how much more merchant can you get than handling money, especially not only as a business but as a collectible,” he said. “There is no greater artifact about a civilization, a culture and a people than their coinage.”

Coins, he noted, can reveal secrets about economics, history, political science, language, metallurgy, society and fashion in a single artifact.

And for those with an interest in Jewish history, he added, there are coins and paper money with Jewish themes or Hebrew letters, coins from early Jewish civilizations such as the Bar-Kochba era, coins of pre-Israel Palestine and the original currency from the early state of Israel.

Jewish-related coins and bills, along with many others, can be found at the American Numismatic Association’s free World’s Fair of Money on display through Sunday, July 31 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Anybody with an interest in Jewish history, civilization, legacy or Judaica should be interested in Jewish coin collecting, “a relatively inexpensive area,” said Kagin, explaining that a few dollars can buy coins over 2,000 years old from early Jewish civilizations.

Jews have been at the forefront of coin collecting even before it emerged as a business in the 1850s, he said. Jews (including the Rothschilds) have handled and collected the oldest and greatest collections, added Kagin, a member of Congregation Kol Shofar.

Kagin thinks Jews’ prominence in the industry can be explained by the connection between Judaism and numismatics. “Jewish people seem to always be interested in their history and culture and heritage, and [are] always questioning and curious about who they are. And numismatics is a great way to find answers to that, and to keep in touch with your heritage.”

His interest in numismatics comes from his family. His father, who recently died at age 85, had been a professional since 1933. A man who helped promote the Lubavitch movement in Iowa, his passions for Judaism and numismatics converged. He lectured about Jewish influence on American money and the American monetary system.

Kagin remarked that his father enjoyed telling the stories of Benjamin Levy and Benjamin Jacobs, who signed the colonial Continental currency of 1776-1777. One of the financiers of the American Revolution — Chaim Solomon — was also Jewish, Kagin pointed out.

In 1777, he added, Francis Salvador, a printer of money in South Carolina, used Hebrew letters as a counter-counterfeiting device.

Kagin’s interest in money is also taking another form: advocacy for the inclusion of a Gold Rush museum in the Old Mint in San Francisco, known as the Granite Lady. Such a museum, said the Jewish numismatist, would be run by the S.F. Museum and Historical Society and could become “a mecca for coin collectors.”




The World’s Fair of Money will be held 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. through July 30 and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., July 31 in the Moscone West Convention Center, 2nd Floor, 800 Howard St., San Francisco.