NNP

This week Newman Portal sponsored the creation of a series of daily video reports from the ANA convention, produced by Lianna Spurrier. Starting with the ribbon cutting on day 1 (Tuesday), Spurrier covers all aspects of the show from exhibits to auctions to bourse personalities and, of course, coins. Dealer Shanna Schmidt, recently elected to the ANA board, appears on the day 2 video (Wednesday), while day 3 (Thursday) brings coverage of the sale of the 1894-S dime at the Stack’s Bowers auction. In the day 4 video, Benjamin Franklin (aka Pat McBride) makes a surprise appearance and notes that the colonial paper money he printed 300 years ago has held up surprisingly well. This was the first large show Spurrier has attended and she brings a new and refreshing perspective to the convention experience.

Link to Lianna Spurrier ANA convention videos on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/multimediadetail/529486?Year=2019&take=50

Recently added to Newman Portal are Eric Newman’s research files on Virginia coinage. Newman, as usual, casts a wide net, corresponding with institutions and individuals including the Royal Mint, the U.S. National Archives, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Historical Society, Morton Stack, and others. Correspondence with the American Numismatic Society regarding Newman’s publication on the subject, Coinage for Colonial Virginia (Numismatic Notes and Monographs, no. 135, 1956) is included here. This reveals an interesting tidbit regarding the dedication of this work to Newman’s wife Evelyn (“Dedicated / to / my wife Evelyn / who, prophetically, was wearing / a necklace of coins / when we first met”). The ANS was reluctant to publish this but Eric was insistent, as noted in correspondence to the ANS on November 2, 1956. This file also includes the photographic pasteups used for the ANS article.

Link to Eric P. Newman research files on Virginia coinage: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/533004

A recent addition of the Newman Portal is a video produced by David Lisot, The Andrew Jackson / Earl / Sevier Flying Eagle Gobrecht Dollar, which traces the path of an 1836 Gobrecht dollar from President Andrew Jackson to Ralph Earl (the “court painter” during Jackson’s White House years) to the Sevier clan, an important Tennessee family. The coin remained in the family for many years until several years ago when it was sold to a well-known dealer of Liberty Seated coinage. Soon after selling the coin, the Sevier descendant discovered a letter in an old family bible detailing the coin’s provenance. Alas, the coin had already disappeared into the channels of numismatic commerce. Could the coin be reunited with the documentation? LSCC Education Director John Frost tells the story in a presentation from the March 2019 Whitman Baltimore Expo.

Link to The Andrew Jackson / Earl / Sevier Flying Eagle Gobrecht Dollar video on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/562810