Dave Michaels joins CNG

Dave Michaels

Ancient coin specialist David S. “Dave” Michaels returned to Classical Numismatic Group as of July 1.

Michaels, who previously worked for the Lancaster, Pa., and London, England, firm from 1999-2001, has 30 years of experience in both running his own company and as a director with three of the largest auction houses in the field.

He was most recently Director of Ancient Coins for Heritage Auctions from 2010 to 2017.

“I could not be happier to be rejoining this extraordinary firm,” Michaels said. “It will be my goal to use everything that I have learned over three decades to help maintain and grow CNG’s leadership in this field.”

“Dave will be helping to re-establish our presence at the major U.S. coin shows, something we have neglected over the last few years, as we focused on our auction business,” said Victor England, Senior Director of CNG. Michaels will attend around 10 major U.S. coin/trade shows each year, beginning Aug. 14-18 with the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money in Philadelphia.

In addition to attending shows, Michaels will work closely with Senior Directors Victor England and Eric McFadden, and the CNG numismatic staff, to secure consignments for future electronic, mail-bid and live auctions, including Triton XXII, scheduled for January 2019. He can be reached via email at dave@cngcoins.com.

Michaels has possessed a lifelong fascination with ancient history, starting with a viewing of the movie “Cleopatra” at the age of six in 1964.

“For some reason, those scenes of Greco-Roman grandeur just stuck with me, and the ancient world has been my passion ever since,” he said. Michaels will be using this passion to write and create more historical content for CNG’s auction catalogs and website.

Originally a journalist, a chance purchase of an ancient Roman coin during a visit to Italy in 1985 turned his life around.

“Within three years, I’d started a little coin company, Imperial Coins, to finance my collecting habit,” he recalled. In 1988, he quit his job as a newspaper editor to become a full-time coin expert with Worldwide Treasure Bureau in Visalia, Calif.

In 1991, he started Palladium Numismatics, which he operated for eight years before joining Classical Numismatic Group as Sales Director in 1999, a time when CNG was pioneering Internet coin sales for ancient coins and hitting its stride with the Triton series of auctions in New York.

In 2002, Michaels moved back to California to join Freeman & Sear as Vice President of Sales. During his eight-year tenure, he created and managed the firm’s website, brokered its foundation, with Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., of the Gemini series of auctions, and was the company’s main public face at coin shows.

In 2010, Michaels moved to Heritage Auctions as Director of Ancient Coins, where he helped the Dallas-based firm develop a major presence in a field it had never previously tapped. Over his nearly eight years with Heritage, the World/Ancient coin department sold more than $62 million worth of ancients.

An expert on the ancient Roman military, Michaels has authored several novels and magazine articles on historical themes.

In 2002, he co-founded the Legion VI Victrix historical re-enactment group, which has appeared in numerous television documentaries and given presentations at the world famous Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, Calf. His wife, Lorie Ann Hambly, is also an ancient historian and author.

He has three daughters, Alexandria, Arianna and Julienne, all of whom reside in California.