Walter Breen

Walter Henry Breen Jr. (1928-1993) was an American numismatist and writer whose Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins (1988) introduced the “Breen numbers” still used to classify U.S. coin varieties. Earlier works included monographs on proof coins (1953), Penny Whimsy (1958, with W. H. Sheldon), Dies & Coinage (1962), and specialized encyclopedias on half cents (1983) and proof issues (1977). Outside numismatics he was active in science-fiction fandom and wrote, under the pseudonym “J. Z. Eglinton,” apologias for pederasty; he also served as an officer of NAMBLA. Breen was first convicted of child molestation in 1954 and, after further arrests, received a ten-year prison sentence in 1992; he died of cancer in custody the following year. From 1964 to 1990 he was married to author Marion Zimmer Bradley, with whom he had two children.