NNP

Sponsored in part by a grant from the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society, George Cuhaj’s latest work, Medals of the Hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, is now available on Newman Portal. 

Cuhaj’s work documents medals issued by Catholic dioceses, archdioceses, and church institutions in the United States from 1789 through 2020. Organized primarily by diocese, the work identifies and describes medals that commemorate bishops, cardinals, cathedrals, jubilees, church anniversaries, and other significant ecclesiastical events. The catalog includes medals ranging from small medalets to large presentation pieces and captures both widely distributed commemoratives and more obscure issues from diocesan archives, collectors, and institutional collections.  

The study further situates these medals within the broader development of the Catholic Church in the United States. Beginning with the establishment of the first U.S. diocese in Baltimore in 1789 and the subsequent expansion of dioceses across the country, the book traces how medallic art has been used to commemorate clerical leadership, cathedral construction, anniversaries, and institutional milestones. The result is both a reference guide for collectors and a historical record of American Catholic hierarchy expressed through medallic art.

Link to George Cuhaj books on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/521

Thanks to the diligent efforts of Lara Jacobs at the American Numismatic Society, Newman Portal now includes 131 auction sales from the German firm Adolph Hess, dated 1875-1914.

Hess (1846-1912) launched his coin business in 1871 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and handled many important sales before selling his firm in 1894 to Louis Hamburger and his son-in-law, James Belmonte. Hamburger and Belmonte continued the business under the name Adolph Hess Nachfolger. The firm, today known as HessDivo, is currently based in Zurich.

The site rNumis.com lists 240 Hess catalogs total and further links to scans from Gallica (the digital face of the French National Library) and the University of Heidelberg.

Link to Hess catalogs on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctioncompanydetail/515305
Link to Hess catalogs on rnumis.com: https://www.rnumis.com/house_auctions.php?house=HESS
Link to HessDivo history: https://www.hessdivo.com/history