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May 07 2024

Newman Portal Search Hints

Newman Portal searches from the home page are exact text only. If you enter multiple words, it will search for that entire phrase.

If you wish to search for multiple terms all one page, but not in exact order, use the search form at https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/powersearchform. For example, if you wish to locate pages containing the words "Washington," "medal," "birth," and "centennial," enter the search:

ItemContent:Washington AND ItemContent:medal AND ItemContent:birth AND ItemContent:centennial

You can also use Google to search the Newman Portal site. From Google, enter, for example:

"washington medals" site:nnp.wustl.edu

Finally, you can search the Newman Portal document repository directly (https://archive.org/details/newmannumismatic), which, in some cases, will deliver additional results. On this page, check the box "Select text contents" before searching.

For additional assistance, please email us at NNPCurator@wustl.edu.

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Apr 22 2025

Chester Sullivan Publishes on the Castorland Jetons

The Guide Book overview of the Castorland jetons notes “These medals, or ‘jetons,’ are dated 1796 and allude to a proposed French settlement known as Castorland in Carthage, New York, at the time of the French Revolution. They were given to directors of the colonizing company for their attendance at board meetings. Copy dies are still available and have been used at the Paris Mint for restriking throughout the years. Restrikes have a more modern look; their metallic content (in French) is impressed on the edge: ARGENT (silver), CIUVRE (copper), or OR (gold).”


Chester Sullivan has recently published a paper that details seven types of the Castorland pieces and includes a census of significant examples. Most significantly, the work separates initial strikes (100 pieces in bronzed copper, 673 examples in silver, three types) from medals struck later (four types, though still with the original dies). 


Link to How to Identify the Seven Types of Original-Dies Castorland Jetons on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/556055
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Apr 19 2025

The 1870 James B. Longacre Sale

Of all the Chief Engravers of the Mint, Longacre was the best archivist, putting aside extensive collections of both papers and coins. The papers are today in the Library Company of Philadelphia and have been explored by Michael Moran and Jeff Garrett (1849: The Philadelphia Mint Strikes Gold) and others. To be sure, work remains, and the Library Company recently offered an internship to improve their catalog descriptions of the Longacre papers. The Library Company also holds an important group of pattern pieces from the Longacre estate, which have been published by John Dannreuther, Saul Teichman, and other writers. 

However, the lion’s share of the Longacre coins were sold by his estate in 1870. Presented by M. Thomas, the sale included 119 lots of U.S. patterns, in addition to an 1850 double eagle described as proof, and 56 lots of “composition casts, impressions of dies, steel plates, etc.” Had this group survived as a whole, we would likely have greater insight into the evolution of the coinage and Mint medal designs of this period. Still, the Longacre estate is to be credited for preserving the material that today resides in the Library Company, the largest such group associated with a Mint Engraver. 

Newman Portal features three copies of the Longacre sale catalog, including one recently discovered in the Newman library remainders. The three copies (two from the American Numismatic Society) are variously annotated with prices and names. The additional copies are accessible via the left column of the catalog landing page (“IAID 1” and “IAID 2”).

Link to the M. Thomas sale catalog of the Longacre collection, January 21, 1870, on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=511814&AuctionId=515574



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