Joel R. Anderson, of Florence, Alabama, died peacefully at home on Monday evening, October 12, 2020, from natural causes at the age of 76. He was well known in the numismatic world as a businessman and generous supporter of many hobby causes.

The Anderson family has been active for decades in numismatics, publishing, and media distribution, among other industries. This started in 1917 with a street-corner newsstand built in downtown Florence by his late father, Clyde W. Anderson. The Anderson Companies grew into a business that today includes Anderson Media Corporation; TNT Fireworks (the largest importer and distributor of consumer fireworks in the United States); specialty publisher Anderson Press; and Books-A-Million (the nation’s second-largest book retailer).

Joel Anderson attended the University of North Alabama and then worked in his family businesses. He served as a director of many affiliated firms and chairman of the Anderson Companies, which today employ more than 11,000 associates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and China.

A Longtime Hobby Supporter and Enthusiastic Collector

Among hobbyists and collectors, the best-known Anderson brands are ANCO (manufacturer of coin tubes and other supplies); Cowens (cardboard coin holders); H.E. Harris & Co. (stamp dealer, publisher, and philatelic supplier); and Whitman Publishing, the largest publisher of numismatic books and supplies, and creator of the annual Guide Book of United States Coins (the “Red Book”).

Joel Anderson was an active supporter of the American Numismatic Association, the American Numismatic Society, and other hobby organizations. “Mr. Anderson believed in the power of literacy, research, and education,” said Whitman president Mary Burleson. “He gave generously of his time, business expertise, and financial resources to strengthen every aspect of the hobby. He did this quietly, without fanfare, never seeking praise or publicity for himself.”

Anderson was a serious collector of rare United States paper money. In 2018 and 2019 his collection was sold by Stack’s Bowers Galleries for more than $34 million. It was the most valuable cabinet of U.S. paper currency ever dispersed at public auction.

A Positive Influence in Many Worlds

Friends from across the wide spectrum of the Anderson family’s business and civic activities are mourning the loss of Joel Anderson. In the world of pyrotechnics, he is remembered as the founder, chairman, and director of the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory. (Dr. John A. Conkling, in Boom: America’s Ever-Evolving Fireworks Industry, wrote of Anderson’s “strong and capable leadership” of the safety and testing organization, which is credited with reducing the number of fireworks injuries and fatalities). Medical organizations such as the Cardiovascular Institute of Philadelphia and the American Heart Association celebrate him as a trustee and supporter. His philanthropic, civic, and humanitarian endeavors have earned him the respect and admiration of the Salvation Army, the United Way, and the many schools, libraries, and museums that he championed and served.

The Anderson family shared some words of wisdom Joel Anderson gave in a letter to his grandchildren, exemplifying his life philosophy:

Always smile and feel happiness and it will become a part of you. Always be positive and if you are sometimes defeated in something, don’t pout, don’t complain, just turn around and take another path to winning. Always respect others, always be honest with others and, very importantly, yourself. Always go out of your way to do the right thing in any situation and always remember to be nice and share with others, especially persons who need a helping hand.

Anderson is survived by his wife, Carmen Hemmer Anderson; daughters, Ashley Ruth Anderson and Kristen Lore Anderson; son, Joel Ray Anderson II (Sophie); brother, Charles Caine Anderson; sister, Jan Anderson Wiggins (Bob); grandchildren, Kate Brooklyn Billingsley, Grant Ray Billingsley, and Stella Ruth Chanin; niece, Catherine Foss Wingfield; nephews, Anderson Malone Wingfield, Charles Caine Anderson Jr. (Moll), Terrence Carroll Anderson (Susan), Clyde Barbour Anderson (Summer), and Harold Myron Anderson (Amber). He was preceded in death by his father, Clyde W. Anderson; mother, Ruth Keenum Anderson; and sister-in-law, Hilda Barbour Anderson.

There will be a drive-by visitation at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, October 16, followed by a private graveside service for family at 3:00 p.m. at Greenview Memorial in Anderson’s hometown of Florence, Alabama.

The family welcomes donations, as an expression of sympathy in lieu of flowers, to the American Heart Association, the University of North Alabama, or United Way of Northwest Alabama.

An online guest book may be signed here.

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Whitman Publishing announces the release of In God We Trust: The American Civil War, Money, Banking, and Religion, by numismatic researcher William Bierly. The 352-page hardcover book will debut in November 2019. It will be available from booksellers and hobby shops nationwide, and online, for $29.95.

The national motto “In God We Trust” debuted on United States coinage during the chaos and heartache of the American Civil War. It has appeared on our money ever since. Bierly, digging deep into the origins and history of “In God We Trust,” tells its full story for the first time, introducing Reverend Mark Watkinson, the preacher who inspired the Treasury Department to “recognize Almighty God in some form on our coins” . . . Mint Director James Pollock, former governor of Pennsylvania, “a commanding figure” who worked toward the same vision . . . and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, nephew of an Episcopal bishop, who marshalled the nation’s vast resources and financed the war with bold innovations. President Abraham Lincoln figures in the tale, as does a cast of military generals, wealthy industrialists, poets and artists, powerful bankers, and everyday Americans, North and South.

Bierly shows how the upheaval of the Civil War changed not just the face of our coins and paper currency, but the very foundations of modern American banking and finance.

The story continues into the renaissance of beautiful American coinage started by President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s . . . the religious revival of the 1950s, and the “Unwritten Constitution” . . . legal challenges by modern-day atheists . . . and controversy surrounding “In God We Trust,” public and school prayer, Ceremonial Deism, the separation of Church and State, and other topics very relevant in today’s social and political conversations.

Historian Q. David Bowers, former president of the American Numismatic Association, calls In God We Trust “One of the most detailed, intricate, and fascinating books in the field of American numismatics—and in American history in general.” On the author’s style, Bowers says, “Bierly approaches the subject respectfully on all sides, with color, personality, dashes of humor, and dogged pursuit of the truth.”

In God We Trust is available for preorder now.

In God We Trust: The American Civil War, Money, Banking, and Religion

By William Bierly; foreword by Q. David Bowers

ISBN 0794845282

Hardcover, 6 x 9 inches, 352 pages, full color

Retail $29.95 U.S.

About the Author

William (Bill) Bierly was raised on a farm near Walkerton, Indiana. As a child, he heard stories from his grandparents about two of his great-grandfathers who had served in the Civil War. This led to a lifelong interest in that war and that period of history. At about age eight, he began collecting coins from circulating change. Following high school Bierly attended Northwestern University for two years and then completed a degree in sociology and economic development with a minor in Chinese studies at Indiana University. He then worked in India for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in a dairy development project. Back in the United States, his interest in coins was rekindled. He soon went abroad again, working for three years in Osaka, Japan. Then in the United States, he operated a small business for five years, sold it, and entered graduate school, earning an MBA in finance from Indiana University and embarking on a 25-year career in commercial banking. With his overseas experience, Bierly focused on international banking, particularly Japanese corporate business and Asian correspondent banking. He began his career at the National Bank of Detroit, and he worked with J.P. Morgan Chase for much of his career; at various times at the bank’s Detroit, Chicago, and Columbus, Ohio, offices, as well as often traveling to Asia.

While thus engaged, Bierly continued to pursue his coin hobby, eventually specializing in Civil War–era coinage, in particular, pattern coins. Today he is active in several coin groups and clubs, most notably the Central States Numismatic Society, the American Numismatic Association, the American Numismatic Society, the Chicago Coin Club, the Michigan State Numismatic Society, and the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists, as well as the Civil War Token Society and the Liberty Seated Collectors Club. He sometimes exhibits his collection at major coin shows and frequently volunteers as an exhibit judge.

Bierly resides in LaPorte, Indiana. He has two children, Emma and Ken, as well as a granddaughter, Kiki.