Eugene Joseph "Gene" Hessler (born July 13, 1928[1]) is an American musician and numismatist, specialising in paper money.
He also worked at the Radio City Music Hall, and as a free-lance trombonist performed or recorded with Doc Severinsen, Tommy Newsom, Urbie Green and many more New York musicians.
He also performed as an extra or substitute with the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under numerous conductors including Leonard Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski.
He travelled through Africa with a musical group in 1964 and went around the world with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1966; both were State Department tours.
He discovered and published several previously unknown designs for U.S. currency through research at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Smithsonian Institution.