NNP

Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society

The Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP) is funded by a 4-year, $2M grant from the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society (EPNNES) to Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). “I have long wanted to make the literature and images of numismatics, particularly American numismatics, available to everyone on a free and forever basis,” Eric P. Newman said in November 2014. “Today’s digital technologies, combined with the funds recently assembled from auctions of some of our foundation’s holdings, now make this possible.” In addition to financial support, EPNNES has made its library and extensive archival collections available to NNP for digitization purposes.

Newman has been a proponent of numismatic education since his early collecting days as a child in St. Louis. Mentored by St. Louis dealer Burdette G. Johnson, Newman went on to amass not only an important collection, but contributed substantial, original research to the corpus of American numismatic knowledge. He has written widely in the field of colonial numismatics, notably creating the standard reference on colonial paper money, now in its 5th edition. His impacts on numismatic scholarship have endured over multiple generations, beginning with a strong commitment to original work in the 1940s and fostered by an innate curiosity to find new sources of information and to make new connections within the existing knowledge. Newman has further supported hobby organizations, particularly the American Numismatic Society, both financially and by acting as a steadfast advocate for transparency and for vigorous pursuit of all facts related to the issues of the day. EPNNES now funds the Newman Numismatic Portal as a way of utilizing the latest technology to further enhance the field of American numismatics.

S&S Library

The S&S Library resides in Chicago, IL and is managed by Shanna Schmidt. The library is focused on ancient Greek and Roman coinage but has significant holdings in all areas of numismatics. Schmidt continues to build the library, which includes acquisitions from the BCD Library and other sources. In 2023, the Newman Portal and the S&S Library announced a joint digitization program that will make available the out of copyright portions of this important private library. 

Hamelberg Library

Dan H. Hamelberg has generously loaned material from his incomparable library for scanning purposes.  Among the items are unique bid books of the Chapman brothers Philadelphia auction firms, plated catalogs of Thomas Elder, client lists of the Chapman brothers and early Stack's firms, early U.S. Mint reports, plate books from the Col. E. H. R. Green collection, and other equally important material.

American Numismatic Society

The Newman Portal partners with the American Numismatic Society (ANS) to provide online access to ANS materials. The ANS has allocated space to the Newman Portal at their New York City location, where a full-time scanner processes documents from the ANS library and archives, with a focus on American content. Currently (6/2016) being scanned are 19th and early 20th century auction catalogs, and the Virgil Brand inventory ledgers.

Coin Library

Prior to joining the NNP project, Wayne Homren designed and built a prototype site (CoinLibrary.com) with the financial assistance of several numismatic dealers, collectors and bibliophiles. CoinLibrary.com content has been incorporated into the Newman Portal. We  would like to acknowledge the support of the following contributors: John W. Adams, Q. David Bowers, Kenneth Bressett, William Burd, Dan Hamelberg, John Kraljevich, Jr., Greg Roberts, Harvey Stack, David Sundman, and Anthony Terranova.