Margo Russell was born Margaret Graham in 1919 in Dayton, Ohio. Her family moved to Shelby County when Margo was seven. She was a Depression-era high school honor graduate of Sidney High School. While still in high school, Margo became a reporter for the Sidney Daily News thus beginning her lifelong dedication to journalism. While a journalist for the Sidney Daily News, Margo received honors for her news and feature stories, especially for her World War II coverage.
Active in the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association, Margo represented Sidney and Shelby County as a correspondent for the Dayton Journal-Herald. Early in 1960, Margo was asked to develop freelance coin features for the startup Coin World newsmagazine. For a time, Margo had put her career on hold in favor of motherhood. This Coin World work gave her the freelance opportunity to write for the fledging publication and research one of the oldest hobbies in the world. As she threw herself into her research and writing, she realized as a journalist that the job was the perfect “beat.” It combined people, history, art, archeology, economics, and metallurgy. She transformed Coin World from a start-up publication into an internationally recognized numismatic newspaper serving as the editor for Coin World’s first 25 years of operation, retiring in 1986. In doing so, Margo created for herself a secure place in numismatic history. Indeed, she effectively opened the door for the participation of women at every level of numismatics.
During her career, Margo covered major Department of the Treasury stories as well as those at the United States Mint and Bureau of Engraving and Printing. She testified before both houses of Congress several times on the behalf of the numismatics tax credit plan. In 1964, Margo Russell was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to serve as a member of the United States Assay Commission, an honor much sought after in the coin collecting community. The Assay Commission was a panel created nearly 200 years earlier to check and confirm that coins met with statutory requirements.
During Margo’s numismatic career every honor worth having was bestowed upon her. She was the recipient of the ANA’s Medal of Merit and the association’s highest honor, the Farran Zerbe Award. Margo was inducted into the American Numismatic Association Hall of Fame. Margaret “Margo” Russell will be forever known as the “First Lady of Numismatics.”
In later years Margo was one of the founders of the Sidney High School Hall of Honor, later becoming an honoree herself. Margo Russell was involved with the endowment committee for Dorothy Love Retirement Community, an honorary member of Altrusa Club, held the Order of the Rose in Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, was active in founding the Gateway Arts Council, and was a devoted member of the First Presbyterian Church in Sidney.