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With the recent discovery of the James A. Stack 1804 dollar, researchers have been poring through existing research on the “King of American Coins,” and one such effort led to the discovery of an errant footnote in Eric P. Newman and Ken Bressett’s The Fantastic 1804 Dollar (1962). John Kraljevich correctly notes the footnote on p. 79, referring to The Numismatist (August 1961), should instead specify The Numismatic Scrapbook. 

Ironically, it was a mistaken citation that launched Newman’s investigation into the 1804 dollar. As Joel Orosz wrote in the Newman biography Truthseeker: The Life of Eric P. Newman: “The index for The Numismatist [which at that time covered 1888-1938] revealed no pertinent articles for 1804 and 1805 dollars, just two on the subject of 1904 and 1905 dollars. Newman therefore delved into original sources in order to piece together the true history of these coins. Only later did he learn that the index was in error; that The Numismatist had published two articles on the topic of these 1804 and 1805 dollars…and that his old mentor, Burdette Johnson, had already denounced both dollars [the Zerbe / Ostheimer examples] as frauds.” Had Newman been aware of Johnson’s previous condemnation of these two coins, his own investigation might have been short-lived.

Link to Eric P. Newman research files on the 1804 dollar: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/536418

Courtesy of the Florida United Numismatists (FUN), Newman Portal has added six videos representing presentations given at the 2025 Summer FUN convention. Speakers include Tom Scopp, Randy Campbell, William Jones, Steve Howard, Jay Chamberlain, and Bob Hurst. The FUN convention returns to Orlando with its 71st convention in early 2026, January 8-11.  Many thanks to FUN board member Steve Martin for assistance with this content.

Link to FUN videos on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/multimediadetail/549321
Link to FUN website: http://www.funtopics.com/