NNP Blog
307 records found.
Crispus Attucks in Nummis
Link to Newman file on the American Revolutionary Bicentennial Commission, detailing Franklin Mint Bicentennial issues:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/567391
Thomas Jefferson Coin Collection
While coin collectors would like to think that the Founding Fathers were dedicated numismatists who were intimately involved with the early U.S. Mint, Jefferson, who oversaw the formation of the Mint as the Secretary of State, summed up the situation in an 1825 letter to Mint Director Samuel Moore: “I do not remember a single circumstance respecting the devices on our coins except that someone having proposed to put Genl. Washington’s head on them it was entirely objected to.” In reality, the decisive vote in the House on this question was passed by a narrow margin, 26-22, in favor of a depiction of Liberty on the coinage. Even Jefferson’s single recollection was not quite right.
Link to Beth Deisher research on Jefferson coin collection on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/540804
Conder Token Journals on Newman Portal
Link to the “Conder” Token Collector’s Journal on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/527391
Link to the Conder Token Collector’s Club home page: http://ctcc.info/
Newman Portal Scans Numismatic News
While we have not secured permission to display this periodical with full-view on NNP, we will display brief snippets in search results, which will alert researchers and readers to the existence of an article not otherwise known. In addition, Newman Portal is able to fulfill limited requests for copies of selected articles under fair use.
Alexandre Vattemare Addenda Rediscovered
The most recent English biography of Vattemare is Q. David Bowers’ Alexandre Vattemare and the Numismatic Scene (Stack’s Bowers, 2018), with foreword by David Gladfelter.
Link to Vattemare’s Revue Numismatique 1864 article on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/541416
Link to Vattemare’s Collection de Monnaies et Médailles de L'Amérique du Nord de 1652 a 1858: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/537242
Peter, The Mint Eagle
An 1896 letter from the Mint correspondence in the National Archives, recently transcribed by Newman Portal, asks about Peter, the Mint eagle. The letter writer asks for more specifics regarding the oral tradition of this national bird, who was said to have inhabited the Mint, broke a wing on the machinery, died, and was thereafter stuffed for posterity. The missive is addressed to the Philadelphia Mint Superintendent and the response is recorded as follows.
“We have no record of the history of the eagle, Peter; except by tradition. He was the property of Mr. Adam Eckfeldt, the Chief Coiner of the Mint; The Mint was his home. He would fly all around the city, and always return to the Mint. His life in the Mint was between 1830 and 1836. He was the model for several pattern coins, and the nickel cent of 1857, and 1858 of the regular issue. The first was the pattern dollar of 1836.”
Left unexplained is how the bird navigated to the new Mint building that was put into operation c. 1833. The earliest mention of Peter appears to be in Elizabeth Johnston’s A Visit to the Cabinet of the United States Mint (1876), where “an old citizen of Philadelphia” is cited as the authority for the story. Peter is today comfortably ensconced in the visitor’s area at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
Link to “Peter the Mint Bird” letter: https://archive.org/details/peterthemintbirdstory18960507/page/n3/mode/2up
Link to U.S. Mint general correspondence on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/515202
Link to Elizabeth Johnston’s A Visit to the Cabinet of the United States Mint on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/1079
Newman Portal Adds Paper on C. Wylls Betts
Link to “The Late Mrs. C. Wyllys Betts of New York City: Another Numismatic Mystery Put to Rest” on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/534073
Link to “Charles Wyllys Betts (1845-1886)” in the January 10th, 2021 E-Sylum: https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/club_nbs_esylum_v24n02.html#article23
The 1894-S Dime in 1896
Link to Anna Clark letter related to 1894 dimes on NNP: https://archive.org/details/are1894dimesworth5doleach18960109/page/n1/mode/2up
Link to National Archives content on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/Archives?searchLetter=U
History of the Metric System Controversy
Numismatists tend to score higher in age demographics, and many readers will no doubt recall the 1970s metric system discussion in the United States. The Commerce Department created a number of studies at the time, few of which led to any substantial changes in the day to day lives of ordinary Americans, who continued to accumulate pounds (not the monetary kind), drive more miles, and drink gallons of sugary soda. Newman Portal recently added one of these studies, A history of the metric system controversy in the United States : U.S. metric study interim report, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1971. Thomas Jefferson considered the question of decimal coinage and measures together, noting “…the citizens of the United States may be induced to undertake a thorough reformation of their whole systems of Measures, Weights and Coins, reducing every branch to the same decimal ratio….” Jefferson got his way with the coinage in the Mint Act of 1792, but was unsuccessful in driving this further into other areas, and this report serves as a useful summary of the abortive attempt to unite all of the U.S. measures around a decimal standard.
Link to History of the Metric System Controversy on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/593538
U.S. Grant Medal (MI-29) Struck on 1000 Tons Medal Press
Does the medal still exist today? Robert Hoge, ANS Curator Emeritus, responded “Coleman Sellers Jr. was my great-great-grandfather. Prominent engineers and industrialists, he and William Sellers were cousins who seem to have worked frequently together. I have no idea as to what became of that particular U.S. Grant medal, I’m sorry to relate. Both William and Coleman would have received quite a few award medals during their careers, but I have no knowledge of what happened to any of those either. In fact, alas, I myself possess only a couple of Sellers family related mementoes of any kind and am not aware of the whereabouts of much else.”
The gold example is today in the National Numismatic Collection, and the massive format was not an outlier. The Cyrus Field gold medal (PE-10) is just under 25 ounces, while the Henry Clay medal (PE-7) is nearly 30 ounces. The Field medal, now in the Weinberg collection, will be featured in the upcoming Heritage FUN sale.
Link to National Archives content on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/Archives?searchLetter=U
Link to Field gold medal, PE-10, offered by Heritage Auctions: https://coins.ha.com/itm/medals-and-tokens/tokens-and-medals/1867-cyrus-w-field-congressional-gold-medal-julian-pe-10-ms62-ngc/a/1326-4156.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515