James Bevill is the author of a non-fiction book on Texas history, “The
Paper
Republic
: The Struggle for Money, Credit and
Independence
in the
Republic of
Texas
”, released by Bright Sky Press. He was the winner of the 2009 Summerfield G. Roberts award by the Sons of the Republic of Texas as the author of the book which “best portrays the spirit, character, strength and deeds of those who lived in the Republic of Texas”. A past President of the Texas Numismatic Association, Jim has been elected as a national honorary member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas (SRT) for his preservation of the history of the money and the economy of the
Republic of
Texas
.
He is a First Vice President - Investments in the River Oaks office of UBS Financial Services in Houston and has received numerous awards for his work in finance and in numismatics and has written articles on
Texas and Confederate money and its role in our culture and history.
Bevill conceived of an exhibit to showcase the financial and historical pieces illustrated in his book culminating in the well received "Texas
! Making History Since 1519" which was the largest and most significant collection of historical
Texas artifacts ever assembled for public view. He offered to serve as consulting curator and designed and wrote the panels for the numismatic portion of the exhibit. The exhibit opened at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on
March 6, 2011 and ran through
Sept. 5, 2011. The exhibit re-opened at the Hall of State in
Fair
Park
in
Dallas from Oct.-Dec, 2011. The total attendance at the two venues was approximately 165,000 persons who paid to see the exhibit thereby providing revenues to the 501c3 organizations.
Bevill is also the author of "The Confederate Half Dollar Revisited", The Numismatist, September 2005, an examination of efforts to develop a national coinage for the southern states in 1861. Most recently, he co-authored "Lone Stars Rising, A missing numismatic link" which appeared in The Numismatist, May 2011. This was an authentication study of the 1817 New Spain (Texas) jolas, 1/2 real coins which represent the first widespread use of the lone star symbol for Texas. Jim uses these articles for presentations benefiting non-profit organizations.
