The Collection of London 17th Century Tokens Formed by the Late Cole Danehower

Cole Danehower

Cole Danehower was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 28 September 1954, where his father was working on the installation of one of the first mainframe computers. Shortly thereafter, his parents, George and Jacqueline, moved the family to Naperville, Illinois, where he spent much of his childhood in the countryside riding horses in what was then a rural area. His fondest childhood memories were of fishing at the family’s cabin in Ely, Minnesota. He spent a year living in Mexico City where his father, a partner at Arthur Anderson, was on assignment. Subsequently the family moved to the San Francisco Bay area where Cole graduated from Menlo Atherton High School. He went on to study at Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California, earning a B.A. degree in History and International Relations, Cum Laude.

Cole put his interest in history to work at the numismatic firm of Bowers and Ruddy in Los Angeles, while doing graduate coursework in history at San Jose State University. The pursuit of history, especially the studies of World War I and Winston Churchill, was Cole’s passion. He was expert at spotting and identifying vintage aircraft. Living near Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, and later near the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, gave him ample opportunity to do so.

He became fascinated by the historical value of 17th century tokens in researching what was to him the most interesting period of London’s past. The tokens were uniquely able to bring to life the look and feel of Greater London of the mid-1600s. Through study of the tokens, as well as maps and other artifacts, Cole brought together the historical details to illustrate the life and economy of the period. He was able to travel to London often and began his collection in the late 1980s.

Living in California’s Silicon Valley, he built a career in marketing communications for technology firms, including Tandem Computers, Hewlett Packard, and multiple startups. During these years Danehower developed an interest in wine, with regular explorations to the Napa Valley and California’s wine regions. In 1998, looking to expand his writing opportunities, he moved north to Oregon and pursued his newest interest in writing about wine in the fledgling wine area of the Pacific Northwest. It was here that he met his wife, Andrea Danehower and was married in 2000.

Cole was enamoured with the wines he experienced in Oregon and even more so with the winemakers and the places of the Pacific Northwest. He began a publication, The Oregon Wine Report, chronicling the developing industry. In 2004 he was honoured for this work, winning the James Beard Journalism Award for the most outstanding food and wine newsletter in North America. Cole wrote for numerous publications and in 2004 released his own book, Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest, that presented his take on the unique wine character of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho. For the last three years of his life Cole served as the correspondent for Washington, Oregon and Idaho to Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, the annual wine guide by the famed British author.

A frequent judge for national wine competitions and a popular speaker on the region’s wines, Cole was the honoured recipient of the Oregon Wine Board’s Industry Partner and Lifetime Achievement Awards. A man of many passions, from the historical past to promising futures, his interest and enthusiasm was apparent in the respect and love the wine community and his friends bestowed upon him when he died too early from cancer on 21 August 2015, aged 60.
Andrea Danehower