About the Authors

Dick Osburn

Dick Osburn began collecting coins as a pre-teenager in 1955. He collected and dabbled in coin dealing throughout his school years. He put coin collecting aside and graduated from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in 1967 with a BS degree in Mathematics and a minor in Electrical Engineering. He accepted a position with NASA in Houston, and worked there, first as a Civil Servant, later as a contractor, through the 36 years of his active career. His career focused on flight operations. He was a Mission Controller during the Apollo, Skylab, and early Space Shuttle programs. He later became Director of Flight Design and Dynamics for the Space Shuttle. During his college years he married his wife, Ruth. They later became the parents of two boys, both of whom now have families of their own. He retired from the aerospace industry in 2003 to devote full time to coin dealing and collecting.

After the hiatus created by career and family Dick returned to collecting around 1980, and quickly focused on Liberty Seated Halves. In the 1990’s he renewed his interest in coin dealing, establishing Dick Osburn Rare Coins, one of the first national dealerships to specialize exclusively in Bust and Liberty Seated silver coinage. He sold the business in 2010, but both he and the business continue to maintain a presence at regional and national coin shows.

During a period which began in the mid-1980’s and ended in 2011 he became the first collector to assemble a complete set of certified mint state Seated Liberty halves. He sold this collection in 2011, and began a focus on Liberty Seated dollars, with the goal of writing this book, to document all known die marriages for all years of the series. The first stage of that quest was completed in January, 2018, with the publication of the first edition of this book. The related research continues to this day.

Over the years, Dick has contributed much to the study of Liberty Seated coinage. He has authored more than a dozen articles for the Gobrecht Journal, the Journal of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club. His articles were voted best to appear in the Journal for the year 1999 and again for the year 2012. The year 1999 article, “An Analysis of Rarity and Population Estimates for Liberty Seated Half Dollars”, reference 5, was also voted the best to appear in issues #76 through #100 of the Journal, a period of over 8 years.

Dick is a member of the American Numismatic Association, the Texas Numismatic Association, the Liberty Seated Collector’s Club, Florida United Numismatists, Central States Numismatic Society, and the John Reich Collector’s Society.

Dick can be reached at dickosburn@comcast.net

Brian Cushing

Brian’s initial journey into Numismatics began by accident. On his eighth birthday he received the gift of a sandwich bag filled with heavily worn buffalo nickels and pennies from a neighborhood friend. That bag found a home within a shoe box in his closet until a second bout of fate intervened. An avid baseball card collector, he stumbled upon a Buffalo Nickel album while hunting for cards at a local flea market and began plugging holes. An interest in coins was born.

After high school Brian worked as a courier and then a courier manager for a Pathology company on the seacoast of New Hampshire. He also attended the University of New Hampshire and then Franklin Pierce College. During that time he met and married the cousin of prominent Numismatist Liz Coggan. In the summer of 2004, Liz and her husband Miles approached Brian about joining their business in Boston. He gladly accepted this exciting new opportunity. Thanks to Liz, he developed a strong interest in attributing die varieties.

Brian left J.J. Teaparty in 2007 and started his own business, Brian Cushing Rare Coins. As a wholesale dealer, he made many new contacts within the hobby. One of these contacts was Wayne Herndon of Wayne Herndon Rare Coins and Wizard Coin Supply. Wayne approached Brian with an opportunity to run a business he was considering acquiring. That business was Dick Osburn Rare Coins. Excited at the idea of being mentored by Dick Osburn, he accepted the positions of Vice President and Senior Numismatist. In the winter of 2014 Brian acquired the business from Wayne and is now the sole owner of Osburn-Cushing Numismatics.

Brian has established himself as a nationally recognized dealer and specialist in early United States silver coinage. He is a member of the Liberty Seated Collector's Club and Barber Coin Collectors’ Society as well as a Life Member of the American Numismatic Association, the Virginia Numismatic Association, and Florida United Numismatists.

Brian can be reached at bpcushing@gmail.com or rarecoins@dickosburn.com.

Copyright © 2015-2021, by Dick Osburn and Brian Cushing, All rights reserved.