CNG MBS 102 Virtual Catalog

Thomas Bentley Cederlind 1959-2015 Thomas Bentley Cederlind died unexpectedly on 16 December 2015 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Born in Bellingham, Washington on 9 August 1959 to Dr. & Mrs. Irvin Cederlind, Tom was the youngest of four brothers. After graduating from Sehome High School in Bellingham in 1977, he studied ancient history at Lewis and Clark College in Portland and, after some time off, then transferred to Pomona College in California, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in 1986, graduating magna cum laude.

Even before obtaining his degree, Tom was already an established dealer in ancient coins and antiquities. During his more than 30 active years in the coin trade, he published 181 catalogs, the last one scheduled to close on the day of his death. Considered by his clients as “a gentleman who favored a good conversation over a big turnover,” the wellknown collector BCD described him with the following words first published by Uschi Kampmann (CoinsWeekly) in a tribute to Tom on 7 January 2016 that probably describes Tom’s attitude toward his profession best: “Tom is no longer with us. I will miss the enigmatic half-smile he had in store for me every time I visited his table during the December (and later, January) New York show, going back so many years that memories fade like wisps of smoke. I am sure that from somewhere above, his spirit is looking down upon us, contemplating with the same half-smile, the big joke that the lives of each one of us were, are, and will be.

I will not say anything about his passion for coins, which has been an integral part of his life. All of us involved with this great hobby, but mostly his family that had to live with his wonderful obsession, knew about it, and respected him for it.

I will not talk about his quiet, unassuming disposition when it came to talking about coins with collectors who asked from him so much more than they could ever give back. He was always willing to help with information and advice, even when he knew that he would get nothing in return.

I will not mention his integrity and fairness in his dealings, as it would be stating the obvious to all who ever conducted business with him.

But I have one story that I would like to share with you. It involves repeated desperate phone calls between Athens, Greece and Portland, Oregon during very inconvenient hours. I was asking (actually pleading with) Tom to try and recover a coin from his list that was sold to another collector. Those were the days before electronic mailing and the list arrived, as usual, too late. The coin was not only unique, but also from a totally unknown mint. Tom immediately understood how important it was for me, and he was able to get it back by paying a small premium to the collector.

He wanted no commission for his efforts, and this alone speaks for the man’s quality.

It is rare for a dealer to ‘get into the skin’ of a collector and ‘feel’ with him, live through his highs and lows, his cravings, his disappointments, and his triumphs. Tom was such a person and that is why we all loved being with him, and we now miss him and will keep missing him for a long, long time to come.”

Another testimonial about Tom comes from his long-time associate and employee, Michael Bezayiff: “Tom was a highly intelligent man, who was very generous with sharing his knowledge with both his colleagues and collectors. On more than one occasion, I witnessed him leave the table in order to walk a new collector over and look at numismatic books. He was making sure they were introduced to what they may need to appreciate this hobby. While this act was not completely selfless, it did at times help the entire coin collecting community. That is the way he was, always teaching and sharing this part of himself.”

Tom Cederlind is survived by his three-year-old son, Leif Spenser Broncova Cederlind, and by two of his brothers, Jim Cederlind of Seattle, and Dr. Gary Cederlind (wife Cathy; children Ben and Tara) of Sacramento, CA. It should be noted that all of the net proceeds from the sale of Tom’s inventory will be going into a trust fund to benefit his son, as per Tom’s wishes.

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