Steele is a native of Pittsburgh and is currently a resident in the nearby community of Bethel Park Pa. He started college at Penn State, but graduated cum laude from Robert Morris college decades ago, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in business.
Steele is and has been a practicing CPA for over 40 years and is a principal in the accounting firm Stenger – Bies, certified public accountants.
As a youth, Steele’s first job was delivering eggs in his local community. As part of that job, collecting for the sale exposed him to coins of the era, and his interest in coin collecting was born. Many rainy summer days found him walking to one of 2 local banks, and bringing home countless rolls of pennies, which he examined and whizzed on his parent’s living room floor rug. Steele purchased his first serious coin in 1960 for the princely sum of $9.50. It was a BU 1926 1/4 eagle, which he still has today. As time passed his interest in coins increased.
While he later also started collecting scrimshaw, his passion for American coins, and especially early American coppers remained at the forefront. Steele is now the senior staff member at the firm, and has cut back a bit on the accounting work, and tries to fill the void with visiting coin and scrimshaw shows as his schedule allows.