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With the kind permission of the American Numismatic Society (ANS), The Colonial Newsletter has been updated on Newman Portal through the 2017 publication year. The completes the digitization of the “old format” Colonial Newsletter, which was succeeded by the Journal of Early American Numismatics in 2018. The Journal of Early American Numismatics is capably edited by Chris McDowell and is available from the ANS on a subscription basis. The most recent issue continues the long running debate on the origin of the Continental dollar, one of the more enduring and enigmatic questions in American numismatics. 

As summer heats up, it is worth recalling the plight of the women adjusters in the U.S. Mint during the Civil War. Recently scanned by Roger Burdette from the U.S. National Archives, this letter from Philadelphia doctor C. H. Porter to President Lincoln, August 29, 1861, says it all:

“Do not I beg of you throw this aside without reading it through. The object of my addressing you is in regard to the employees in the adjusting room of the U.S. Mint in this city. They are ladies, all respectable Ladies of reduced means. The rules are that the Ladies  shall go to work at the early hour of 7AM, and shall work till 3:30[?] PM in a close room, without a breath of air and with a hot fire in the room, all the time, such weather as it has been here. Is it not an outrage that Ladies should be confined in such a manner, because they have the misfortune to be poor. Ladies are daily almost hourly taken sick and have to be carried home in carriages, and I consider it my duty as a medical man to protest against killing Ladies in such a manner. If you must employ females, do it under better rules, give the Ladies a change for recreation; let them have pure air and enough of it. Let me hear from you and believe me Respectfully Yours, C. H. Porter M.D.”

The presence of the letter in the files of the Secretary of the Treasury suggests that it was not passed on to Lincoln. No reply is recorded here but may exist elsewhere in the National Archives. This letter is from record group 104 (U.S. Mint), entry 216 (Letters sent and received by the Secretary of the Treasury relating to the Mints), vol. 21, p. 317.

Link to National Archives & Records Administration papers on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/Archives?searchLetter=U

The John Reich Collectors Society has opened for access the John Reich Journals for 2015 and 2016, updating the run of this periodical on Newman Portal from 1986-2016. The Journal, edited by Brad Karoleff, is published 3 times annually and covers all aspects of Bust coinage, everything from die varieties to coverage of the latest auction sales.  

The December 2016 issue features an article by YN Garrett Ziss discussing literature purchases at the 2016 ANA Summer Seminar book sale. Included in Garrett’s group was a deluxe copy of the Beistle half dollar variety reference, ex. Lester Merkin, a draft of a late-date large cent attribution guide sent from Jules Reiver to Armand Champa, and a copy of the Merkin auction sale catalog for September 1968 including significant bust coinage. All in all a nice group from the book sale. 

The April 2015 issue features an important article by David Finkelstein discussing the workflow for handling gold and silver in the U.S. Mint in the 1793-1794 period. Several impediments prevented the coining of bullion in this period and Finkelstein’s research is a well-researched overview. 

Other organizations wishing to similarly update their back issues on Newman Portal should contact Len Augsburger at leonard.augsburger@wustl.edu.

Link to John Reich Journal on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/518721
Link to John Reich Collectors Society homepage: https://www.jrcs.org/

Numismatic researchers tend to collect much more information than they will ever publish, and Eric Newman was no exception. Newman collected information on Missouri paper money beginning in the 1930s, and his files on the subject represent his first foray into original research. The papers show Newman working toward what would have been the standard work on the subject, but this was not to be, so busy was Newman making new discoveries in other areas of numismatics. 

The Missouri files are particularly exciting in that they show Eric, only his in 20s, doing, exceptional work. He studies the legislative history, digs though old newspapers, and visits other collections, in this case preparing a catalog of the Chase National Bank collection in 1934. Newman’s extensive annotations to D. C. Wismer’s 1928 article in the Numismatist are here, as well as the draft of an article Newman never published, “Missouri Laws Regulating Circulating Money.”  One finds also the text of a radio address delivered by Newman on August 13, 1939 (Newman appeared on St. Louis local radio at least twice in the 1930s discussing matters numismatic).

Link to Newman research files on Missouri paper money: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/532241