Jim O'Neal, One of the World's Top Collectors

James H. O'Neal was born in Stillwell, Oklahoma in 1937. A year later his family migrated to southern California, thus beginning Jim's lifelong affinity for sandy beaches and the Pacific Ocean.

After graduation from Compton High School, he attended Compton Junior College on a basketball scholarship, where he was fortunate enough to meet and marry his wife, the former Nancy Dee Barden. The O'Neals currently reside in Dallas, but maintain an ocean front home in the San Diego area which provides ample opportunity to continue their seaside activities.

His business career began with the Frito-Lay Company's Western Zone in Los Angeles, where, after several years, he ultimately was named as Senior Vice President for Operations in Dallas. In this position Jim directly supervised the manufacturing, purchasing, industrial engineering, quality assurance, and logistics functions at forty plants in twenty-two states. In addition to the plants, warehouses, and distribution centers, Frito- Lay operated one of the biggest private motor fleets in the country, with over 1000 tractor trailers and ten thousand delivery vans, with that unit reporting to him as well, making him responsible for roughly half of the company's 25,000 employees.

After Frito-Lay's acquisition by the Pepsi-Cola Company (PepsiCo). Jim was named President, Europe Group for PepsiCo Foods International, and was based in London for several years. In that position he was responsible for the division's operations in the U.K., western Europe, eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In addition, his division provided technical, commercial and operational support to licensees in Israel, South Africa, and the PepsiCo joint venture in India for snack foods and beverages.

After this assignment, Jim was named Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International (PRI). This included all company owned and franchise operated operations for KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell properties, which eventually grew to over 8.000 restaurants located in over 100 countries.

When PepsiCo spun off the restaurants into an independent operation now known as Yum Brands, Jim was asked by PepsiCo's president to return to his Frito-Lay roots and was named President and CEO of Frito-Lay International, where he had full responsibility for the division's operations in forty-two countries, with revenues of over $5 billion. He retired from that post four years ago, after a distinguished thirty-five year career, and is currently associated with a venture capital firm in Dallas.

Upon his retirement, Jim joined the Board of Directors of Collector's Universe in June of 2001, and became Chairman of the Board in August of 2002. His service at Collectors Universe included a successful search for that company's new CEO, and a revised corporate strategy that led to a successful turnaround during his nearly two years on the hoard.

Jim started out collecting U.S. coins as a youth. Like many collectors of that era, he was able to assemble modest sets of Lincoln cents. Buffalo nickels, and Mercury dimes by searching through coins in circulation and by an occasional success on a local dealer's bid board. Jim's passion for U.S. history, in particular the Presidency, led him to first assemble an enviable collection of Presidential election pinbacks, and then to U.S. currency.

Jim O'Neal was featured on the cover of the first issue (Fall 2007) of our Heritage Magazine for the Intelligent Collector . That complete issue is available as a free download at this link. We'd like to share a brief quote from that article regarding his longtime interest in the Presidency and how it led to him assembling a magnificent collection of U.S. currency.

"I also got hooked on quiz shows. So I started collecting quiz books. My whole life I've been fascinated with trivia and quizzes. I was always interested in U.S. presidents and elections, as an outgrowth of trivia. I know every president. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, etc. I know every election. You name a year, I know who ran. So I started collecting biographies of presidents. That led me to election pinbacks. It was just a natural thing. I was always scrounging around looking for memorabilia. One day, I was at Half Price Books and I ran across a copy of this book called Paper Money of the United States by Robert Friedberg. It was the third edition from 1959. It had all of these pictures of presidents and once I sat down and started looking at the illustrations, it got me hooked on currency. Bingo! U.S. currency! I love this! It tied in with everything I had been doing ... presidents, elections, history. I still have that book."