Glennon lives in Diamond Bar, California, a canyon city 15 miles north of Disneyland. While he’s able to see and hear Disneyland’s summer night fireworks, he’s very busy teaching computer science to college students as well as overseeing three bachelor degree programs. Two of these programs specialize in computer games. His typical day begins by leaving home at 6:30 AM and arriving at school around 7:10 AM. His class begins at 7:30 AM. From 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM he is usually in his office.
Like so many ECI members, Glennon was introduced to ECI membership after purchasing an item on eBay and receiving a personal invitation to join from our Secretary, Cecil Starcher.
Glennon’s been a numismatics since he was nine years old. Part of his collection includes many completed Dansco albums. Among those albums are two Silver Dollar year sets to Kennedy Halves. Being one who appreciates a challenge, he completed the first set with nice coins. His second set he compiled the intriguing way… with each coin having a contemporary hole. He asks, “Have you ever seen an AU 1800/79 Large Cent or an EF+ 1878 CC Trade Dollar with a hole? They are truly conversation pieces – and maybe even a bit nauseating.”
After a period of collecting and attending coin shows, he became disenchanted with the grading issues of standard numismatic items and how this affected re-sale prices. Voilá, enter the magic of encased cents. He began collecting encased cents for each year beginning 1900 to the present. As he was born in St. Louis, Missouri, he collected encased pieces from Missouri. He moved to his new home state of California when he was in the 7th grade and so he has added encased pieces from California to his collection.
His encased collection is made up of approximately 150 encased coins of a typical variety and some rather unique advertisements. One example is a 1901-cent promoting dentist office furnishings. His favorite piece is a 38mm round, bronze “Good Luck” token with a 1948 red cent offset to the left of center. The obverse reads “Good Luck/is/75%/ The/right/attitude.” The reverse reads “Good Luck” and has “Youngstown Kitchens By Mullins” on the lower rim.
Glennon stores his collection in the Dansco Books which he has configured to his liking. He tosses the original pages and inserts plastic pages which hold coins. In addition, with his computer science background, he has written his personal coin collection program. With this he tracks the specifics of each coin purchase and he is able to project a possible re-sale value if he holds the piece for a period of time.
Several times each year, his work takes him to different sections of the country where he meets with his collegiate peers. After business, he enjoys visiting local coin shops. On one trip, shortly have the events of September 11th, he wanted to visit the Denver Mint. This was an achievement since at that time it required a letter from his Congressman to visit. He found the Denver Mint to be a bit pared down and said a much more rewarding visit had been to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, DC.
Glennon served four years in the military in naval aviation. He participated in 8-month rotating tours. One tour was spent flying jet helicopters in Viet Nam. The other tour was recovering the Apollo space capsules. His varied military service, and the science it introduced to him, formed a sound foundation for the work he does today. He went on to receive his BS degree in Business Management and his MBA in Information Technology.
Glennon enjoys attending the Long Beach Coin Show. He also enjoys connecting history to coin collecting. In the past he’s given back to the hobby by introducing coin collecting to scout groups. He found that showing a coin dating in the 1860’s is interesting. But talking about who might have held that coin, Abraham Lincoln or John Wilkes Booth, was very exciting. Now he ponders the mechanics of making an encased piece. He’s interested in every facet of these pieces.