Heritage Auctions

Born in Boston in 1952, Jim formed a part-time rare stamp and coin business at age 15 and soon discovered he had a nearly photographic memory for coins. In 1969 at age 16 Jim scored a perfect 800 on his math SATs and received early acceptance to Harvard College, but by his third semester there Jim was enjoying his coin business more than his studies, so he took a permanent leave of absence to pursue a full-time numismatic career. In 1975, Jim supervised the protocols for the first mainframe computer system in the numismatic business, which would catapult New England Rare Coin Galleries to the top of the industry in less than four years. In 1982, Jim's business merged with that of his friend and former archrival Steve Ivy. Their partnership has become Heritage Auctions, the third-largest auction house in the world. In 1984, Jim wrote a book later re-titled "How to Grade U.S. Coins", which outlined the grading standards upon which NGC and PCGS would later be based. Jim is also a well-known futurist, an active collector of comic books, comic art and early 20th-century American art (view parts of his collection www.jhalpe.com), venture capital investor, philanthropist (he endows a multimillion-dollar health education foundation), and part-time novelist. His first fiction book, The Truth Machine, was published in 1996, became an international science fiction bestseller, was optioned as a feature film by Warner Brothers, and is now under development at Lions Gate. Jim's second novel, The First Immortal, was published in early 1998 and optioned as a Hallmark Hall of Fame television miniseries. All of Jim's royalties are donated to health and education charities.