NNP Blog
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Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society Announces Newman Grants
The Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society (EPNNES) today announces its fourth set of Newman Grants, created to financially assist numismatic authors and organizations pursuing original research in American numismatics. Newman Grants are awarded annually on the late Eric P. Newman’s birthday and assist with direct costs of numismatic research such as travel, photography, and graphic arts services.
Five awards are being made this year, touching on varied aspects of numismatics including United States federal coinage, medals, and Spanish-American paper money. The 2023 Newman Grant awardees are:
Benjamin Gastfriend will research elongated pieces produced at the Panama-California and Panama-Pacific International Expositions in the early 20th century, with a focus on archival materials held by the San Diego History Center.
Scott Miller will conduct research on the Lord and Lady Baltimore medal (Betts 34) with the objectives of documenting technical characteristics and creating a definitive census.
Ángel O. Navarro-Zayas has previously published within the field of Spanish-American numismatics and will research the use of 18th century paper money in Puerto Rico, with the goal of uncovering fractional issues possibly issued in the same period.
Shawn Tew will work with U.S. Mint documentation in the National Archives, with the objective of explaining observed anomalies in Lincoln cent production at the beginning of that series.
Winston Zack is well known as a researcher of contemporary counterfeits of early American coinage and will continue that study, concentrating on counterfeit half dollars and silver dollars.
It is the hope of EPNNES that this program will continue the legacy of Eric P. Newman in a way that would reflect his high standards for numismatic research.
Homer Saint-Gaudens Speaks on the Franklin Commemorative Medal
The Medallic Art Company consulted with the engraver James E. Fraser, who has assisted Augustus Saint-Gaudens with the medal. Fraser credited the reverse to Louis but felt that Augustus had reworked the obverse to the extent that “beyond question the portrait was his work.” The whole thread is reminiscent of the authorship of the Beatles’ catalog. John and Paul sometimes provided differing stories as to who composed what. The Saint-Gaudens clan was likely not operating under same level of mind-altering substances, but the salient point is that in a commercial operation with many moving parts, the details of exactly who did what are sometimes lost to history.
Link to Homer Saint-Gaudens correspondence with ANS: https://archive.org/details/saintgaudenshome00amer
Link to ANS member correspondence: https://archive.org/details/americannumismaticarchival?sort=-publicdate
Newman Portal Adds Pollock’s United States Gold Coinage Die Varieties 1795-1834
Link to United States Gold Coinage Die Varieties 1795-1834 on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/626540
Newman Portal Symposium Video Available
Videos from all Newman Portal Symposium sessions are posted at https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/multimediadetail/539070.
Newman Notes on the Bar Coppers
Link to Newman file on Bar Coppers: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/543562
Mint Director Cannot Acquire the Mint Report
During a recent tour of the Wayne Homren library, Wayne shared an original copy of a January 25, 1849 letter from Mint Director Robert M. Patterson to Representative Charles Brown (D-PA). Patterson wrote “I see that my Annual Mint Report for 1848 has been presented to Congress, and it will, no doubt, be printed, as heretofore. May I then ask a favor of you? It is that you will preserve for me as many copies as can be spared. I know that the number usually printed is small.”
Newman Portal previously scanned a draft of this letter in the National Archives. In this version, Patterson added a second request, which has been struck out: “Let me also ask you another favor, to send me any bills that may be printed.” This likely referred to bills related to the Mint, but Patterson apparently felt the second ask was too much.
Patterson’s request is remarkable – even while leading a large, distributed operation producing millions of coins per year, he was not able to get a printed copy of his own report without working his personal contacts in Congress. Patterson’s connection to a Pennsylvania congressman is not surprising, as he was born in Philadelphia, earned his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1808, and later joined the Penn faculty.
Link to draft of Robert Patterson January 25, 1849 letter to Rep. Charles Brown on NNP: https://archive.org/details/Rg104Entry1Box28year1849/page/n25/mode/2up?view=theater
Link to U.S. Mint Reports on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/51
Don Taxay Correspondence on Newman Portal
In 1964, Taxay moved from New Netherlands to the Curator position at the nearby Chase Manhattan Money Museum. The following year discussion turns toward Taxay’s magnum opus, The U.S. Mint and Coinage (1966) with Newman commenting on October 11, 1965 “What a pleasure it was to read….I enjoyed all the new material which you dug up.” Taxay delivered the work in sections to Newman, who clearly contributed edits to the project. It was no accident that Taxay dedicated the work to Newman. Attention then shifts to the Standard Catalogue (1970), and, although Newman reviewed the colonial portion of this work, his overall involvement with the project was less than for Taxay’s previous book.
Taxay’s later disappearance is one of the great mysteries of modern numismatics, and the file here does not shed much light on the subject. Newman’s last letter, September 17, 1975, notes that the two had recently spoken on the phone, and that Newman had apparently consulted his records of the Brand collection as a result of the call. Three letters from 1962 refer to Taxay’s travel to India, where it is thought he eventually moved.
Link to Newman/Taxay correspondence: https://archive.org/details/Epn0510-1961dontaxaycorr
Old Bag Lovers Unite
Link to Journal of the Old Bag Collectors Club on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/549372
Link to upcoming Heritage Auctions offering of a Carson City bag: https://coins.ha.com/itm/morgan-dollars/silver-and-related-dollars/carson-city-mint-canvas-bag-for-silver-dollars-pcgs-7080-/a/1359-4695.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
Newman Portal Reaches Five Million Page Milestone
A large portion of the NNP collection is formed by periodicals, coming in at 35,419 items (2,329,172 pages), or 46% of the total size. High runners in the periodical group include Coin World (6.6% of our entire collection), The Numismatist (3.7%), Numismatic News (3.1%), and the Numismatic Scrapbook (1.5%).
Among archival holdings, the National Archives U.S. Mint series comprises 9.1% of our entire page count, while the Eric P. Newman research papers come in at 1.7%.
Our video collection, 3,854 items total, includes the David Lisot Video Library, which serves as an irreplaceable record of the hobby for the period covered and numbers 2,722 videos.
One of our contributors this week wondered how often their material was consulted on NNP. One might think of NNP as an online library, containing thousands of works that are frequently an inch wide and a mile deep in terms of research scope. By aggregating the inches together, we build a bridge that spans an ever-growing field.
In 1996, Bowers & Merena sold the Eliasberg 1913 nickel, the first U.S. coin to reach the million-dollar level, eventually hammering at $1.485 million. As the bidding reached the million-dollar mark, Dave Bowers briefly stopped to note the significance of the moment, and to add “We’re not stopping there!” We’re not stopping either, with current scanning projects including American Numismatic Society correspondence through the 1930s, U.S. Mint Director correspondence covering 1866-1900, and a series of comic books issued by the Federal Reserve Bank in the 1980s that presented topics in money and banking.
Image: cover of The Story of Money, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1984.
Link to The Story of Money: https://archive.org/details/storyofmoney1984fede/mode/2up
Pete Smith Writes U.S. Mint Coin Bag Guide
Bags surely existed in massive quantities but are infrequently seen today. Smith notes that 56,470 bags would have been required for the 1940-S cent coinage and by extension asks, “where are they now?” Today, the most prized bags are those used to transport gold or Carson City coinage, and nearly all bags identified date to the 20th century.
Newman Portal has digitized some of the late 19th century Mint correspondence relating to coin bags. P. J. Kornder of Brooklyn complained to the Mint Director in 1891: “I would like to call your attention to the enclosed bag which I got from the Mechanics Bank Brooklyn with $10 in Pennies, it is the poorest bag I ever saw and so small that they cannot be properly tied. I spilled them all over the street in carrying. I send you this merely to draw your attention to them, perhaps they are being furnished inferior to the required kind &c.”
Link to The Incomplete Guide to United States Mint Coin Bags on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/624852
Link to Mint bag correspondence, 1879-1895: https://archive.org/details/newmannumismatic?query=bag&sort=&and[]=creator%3A%22u.s.+mint%22
