Johnson created Coin World, the world's first numismatic news weekly in 1960 and served as its first editor. He was first Director of Research for Medallic Art Company, a position he held for a decade and where he edited the firm's collector newsletter, The Art Medalist and cataloged the firm's archives and was active in the great outpouring of medals for the American Bicentennial.

He has owned or managed two numismatic auction firms specializing in medallic art (Johnson & Jensen, Collectors' Auctions Ltd.). In his retirement he is compiling a directory of American artists, diesinkers, engravers, medalists and sculptors of coins and medals.

He has collected the terms of coin and medal technology and and has written entries on these terms for an encyclopedia of this vital information. In the electronic internet field he has written answers to basic inquiries (FAQs) for coin and medal artists at http://www.amsamedals.org/frameset_faq.htm and for medal collectors at http://www.medalcollectors.org/Questions/index.html where he is also editor of the Collector's Guides and Checklists section.

He is a frequent contributor to E-Sylum, a weekly internet newsletter for collectors of numismatic literature. He is a medal consultant for Carnegie Hero Fund and for other national medal-issuing organizations. In 2005 he was named to the board of directors of the Gallery Mint Museum. Recently he was named honorary curator of medals for the Belskie Museum, Cloister New Jersey.

He is a member of three specialized organizations of medal interests -- Token and Medal Society, Medal Collectors of America, American Medallic Sculpture Association -- a member of national numismatic organizations, and a life member of two such regional organizations (New England, Central States). He is an original member of the Rittenhouse Society, a group that encourages numismatic scholarship (named after the first U.S. Mint Director, David Rittenhouse).

Back to The Board