Kenneth Bressett

Kenneth Edward Bressett (born October 5, 1928) is an American numismatist. He has actively promoted the study and hobby of numismatics for over 75 years. His published works on the subject cover a wide range of topics and extend from short articles to standard reference books on such diverse areas as ancient coins, paper money, British coins and United States coins.

Throughout his career he has worked as an author, editor and publisher of books and products for coin collectors.

Bressett first became interested in coins in 1937 when his neighbor gave him a coin each from China and Belgium. He began collecting coins in earnest while he was a clerk in a grocery store in 1943 and through high school. Bressett attended Dresser Business School in 1947 and later studied graphic arts at the University of Wisconsin. He joined the American Numismatic Association in 1947 and attended their convention in Boston the following year. From 1949 until 1959 Bressett worked as a printer and compositor for Sentinel Publishing Company. In 1950, he organized the first coin club in New Hampshire. Between 1948-51 he served in the New Hampshire National Guard.

In the 1950s, he began photographing coins, including the 1804 dollar, several coins from the collection of Louis E. Eliasberg, and many large cents used by William Herbert Sheldon in Penny Whimsy. During that time, he discovered 12 new varieties of colonial coins.

Bressett began free-lance editorial work on Red Book in 1956. He went to work for Richard S. Yeoman at Whitman Publishing in Racine in 1959. He wrote several books while at the publishing house and in 1962 became the editor of the Whitman Red Book and Blue Book. From 1964 to 1968 Bressett was the Editor and Publisher of the Whitman Numismatic Journal. In 1971, following Yeoman’s retirement, he became editor of the Red Book. In 1976, he wrote a variety catalog of Vermont coppers, where he introduced the Bressett numbering system for the series. This system is still the standard for the series today.

From 1986-2002, he wrote the column “Consumer Alert” for the ANA’s magazine The Numismatist. Bressett was on the American Numismatic Association Board of Governors from 1989 to 1994, serving as Vice President and then as President from 1995 to 1997. During his time as president, he wrote a monthly column for The Numismatist.

Bressett coined the term "double die" to refer to the 1955 doubled die cent.

Bressett retired from full-time editing in 2018 and is now listed as “editor emeritus”. In 2021, he released A Penny Saved: R.S. Yeoman and His Remarkable Red Book, an in-depth look at the history behind A Guide Book of United States Coins which also featured a chapter which serves as a memoir.