NNP

In viewing the scanning queue at the American Numismatic Society, a recently digitized run of Karl Kress auction sale catalogs caught my eye. Kress, based in Salzburg, was the successor to Otto Helbing (sale nos. 1-88), and numbering in the Kress series begins with no. 89 in 1944. (As an aside, I’ve always been curious how numismatic sales managed to continue in a war-torn continent – another subject for another day.) 

Ted Buttrey’s Numismatic Auction Catalogues and Fixed Price Lists details over 55,000 auction sale catalogs and fixed price lists in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University and is the first place to look for related bibliographic information. Buttrey notes sales no. 89 – 191, from 1944 to 1986, and nos. 89-157 are now available. John Spring’s Ancient Coin Auction Catalogues identifies four of these sales (nos. 106, 110, 112, and 116) as significant for ancient numismatics. Many thanks to Lara Jacobs, who performs scanning and metadata processing at American Numismatic Society, under sponsorship of Newman Numismatic Portal. 

Link to Karl Kress auction sale catalogs: https://archive.org/details/newmannumismatic?tab=collection&query=kress&page=2&sort=-publicdate
Link to Ted Buttrey’s Numismatic Auction Catalogues and Fixed Price Lists: https://archive.org/details/buttreylists

In this oral history interview, legendary numismatist Ken Bressett reflects on a lifetime in coin collecting that began in the 1930s with Indian cents, B. Max Mehl catalogs, and Ovaltine promotional coins. He recounts his relationships with many of the most important figures in numismatic history, including R.S. Yeoman, Eric P. Newman, Q. David Bowers, Walter Breen, William Sheldon, John Ford, and B. Max Mehl. Bressett explains how his corrections to Yeoman’s Red Book eventually led to a professional partnership, discusses his passion for ancient Greek silver coins, and shares remarkable anecdotes about the development of the hobby, including his role in popularizing the term “doubled die” for the famous 1955 Lincoln cent variety. The interview also highlights Bressett’s contributions as an author, editor, ANA Hall of Fame member, Assay Commissioner, educator, photographer, and researcher whose influence shaped generations of collectors.

The conversation illuminates the culture of twentieth-century numismatics. Bressett describes diving with Mel Fisher at the Atocha treasure site, dining with Eric Newman using silverware made by Paul Revere and Ephraim Brasher, and watching Walter Breen perform on the piano at the 1948 ANA convention. He also shares lesser-known stories about Penn Jillette’s numismatic family background, John Ford’s abrasive personality and counterfeit operations, and his own mistaken obituary published by the Royal Numismatic Society after he allowed his membership to lapse. Bressett emphasizes lifelong curiosity, scholarship, ethical conduct, and friendship within the hobby, presenting a portrait not only of his own career but also of the personalities and institutions that defined modern American numismatics.

Link to Greg Bennick’s Interview of Ken Bressett: https://youtu.be/emQlt4zLTxU
Link to Greg Bennick’s numismatic interviews on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDk2lseZ-iyrsliZhvhqz1ilIqoUeeEcw

The tenth Newman Numismatic Portal Symposium was held April 23-25 in Schaumburg, IL, in conjunction with the Central States Numismatic Society convention. Video from this event, covering 20 presentations, is now available on YouTube. YouTube views are accreting even as I perform the video uploads, and among the more popular presentations is John Feigenbaum and Patrick Perez speaking on “Rare Coin Pricing in a Volatile Precious Metals Market." A big thanks to all the speakers who participated in this year’s Symposium, to Central States Numismatic Society for ever-present onsite support, and to Lianna Spurrier of Numismatic Marketing for producing this event.

Link to 2026 NNP Symposium video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDk2lseZ-iyodoUj7VRU5iSYB348Gm3KD

Among the publications regularly archived by Newman Portal is the Seated Half Society (SHS) newsletter, Half Crazy. The SHS is akin to the Bust Half Nut Club, which requires members to build a significant collection of half dollar die marriages as a condition of membership. Half dollars of this era were struck in large quantities and remain eminently collectible today at many price points. The recent May issue of Half Crazy includes a feature on the 1846 Tall Date and Medium Date varieties, one of the most incorrectly attributed issues in the series, despite the clarifying images in the Guide Book and other sources.

Link to Half Crazy on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/548913

The St. Louis Ancient Coin Study Group meets monthly and features varied topics related to ancient and byzantine numismatics. At the March 19th meeting, David Grant focused on the extensive and highly varied coinage of the Roman emperor Probus (reigned AD 276–282), especially the antoniniani radiates. Grant explained how Probus inherited an empire recently reunified by Aurelian and worked to stabilize its military, economy, and administration while continuing coinage reforms. Much of the talk examines the complexity of Probus coinage: the numerous imperial mints, differing portrait styles, rare legends and titles, military and consular bust types, and the importance of modern scholarship and online databases in attributing and studying these coins. Grant emphasized that the six-year reign produced an enormous variety of coin types, making Probus one of the richest and most rewarding areas of Roman numismatics.

Link to “A Probus Primer”: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/655301
Link to St. Louis Ancient Coin Study Group presentations on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/multimediadetail/552485

Among 21 presenters at this year's NNP Symposium, U.S. Mint Director Paul Hollis took center stage with remarks surrounding the Semiquincentennial coinage programs. Additionally, Hollis responded to numerous questions from attendees, both in the room and online. Local media including the Daily Herald and FOX32 News covered the event. At the conclusion of his talk, Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS) president Mitch Ernst presented Hollis with the 2026 Q. David Bowers award for lifetime service to numismatics.

Video from all NNP Symposium sessions will be posted in 2-3 weeks. The NNP Symposium is sponsored by the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society and produced by Lianna Spurrier of Numismatic Marketing.

Link to NNP Symposium home page: https://nnpsymposium.org/

Link to CSNS press release on the Q. David Bowers award: https://www.csns.org/post/csns-names-mint-director-paul-hollis-as-2026-q-david-bowers-award-recipient

In the current issue of the C4 Newsletter, Roger Siboni contributes a fascinating article on a copper plate that hosted important engravings on both sides. The plate was initially used by Paul Revere to engrave one of the most iconic images of the Revolutionary era, The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th, 1770, by a Party of the 29th REGT. There is much more to this part of the story (including Revere’s plagiarism) and we encourage everyone to read the full article.

Later, Revere used the other side of the plate to engrave the May 25, 1775 10, 12, and 18-shillings issues of Massachusetts paper money. Incredibly, this dual-sided printing plate survives in the Massachusetts Archives. Dual use printing plates from this era are not unknown, but to numismatic eggheads like us the association with a visceral Revolutionary War graphic is especially appealing.

While current issues of the C4 Newsletter are not available on Newman Portal, perhaps readers will take this opportunity to subscribe! In the meantime, issues published more than three years ago may be found on Newman Portal. 

Link to Massachusetts May 25, 1775 currency issue in Early Paper Money of America: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/imagecollection/514457

Link to C4 Newsletters on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/510357

Link to Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4) home page: https://colonialcoins.org/

The next NNP Symposium, our tenth such event, will take place at the Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS) convention in Schaumburg, IL, April 23-25. This event will be live-streamed. Featured speakers include U.S. Mint Director Paul Hollis, who will present at 10:30AM on Thursday, April 23 on “The US Mint's Celebration of the Semiquincentennial.” Among others, ANS Executive Director Ute Wartenberg Kagan will speak on “Coin Portraiture in Antiquity and Today,” while Lawrence S. Brown, Jr., former member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, will present “Congressional Gold Medals: Intersection of Art and History.”

The CSNS “State Showcase” annually features one member state, and this year Missouri will be highlighted with related exhibits and presentations. As part of the NNP Symposium, four presentations are dedicated to Missouri numismatics. A full schedule and Zoom links, for 21 sessions total, will be published on the NNP Symposium website shortly before the event. 

Link to NNP Symposium website: https://nnpsymposium.org

John Lorzeno’s recent paper, “Surface and Grading Issues in Honduran Provisional Eight Reales at the Tegucigalpa Mint: Insights from a Dual Analysis Method: XRF and SEM/EDS Analysis,” is now available on Newman Portal. XRF and SEM/EDS work differently and answer different questions – XRF is better for alloy identification, while SEM/EDS is more useful for analyzing microstructure, including specific particles or spots. Lorenzo’s objective here is to characterize the “signature” of genuine examples.

The paper demonstrates that Honduran provisional eight reales (1856–1861) were struck from highly inconsistent copper–lead alloys, with XRF showing most coins containing ~1–4% lead and occasional extreme cases up to ~14%, while SEM/EDS confirms that lead is immiscible in copper and segregates into discrete inclusions at grain boundaries; these inclusions act as weak points that fracture during striking, producing characteristic micro-cratering, pitting, and surface defects. The study concludes that many surface issues long attributed to environmental damage are actually intrinsic metallurgical and manufacturing flaws—stemming from poor planchet preparation, inadequate annealing, crude minting technology, and alloy instability—while higher lead levels exacerbate but do not solely cause defects such as lamination and fissuring. Overall, the combined XRF and SEM/EDS analysis reframes these coins as products of erratic metallurgy and primitive production methods, explaining both their degraded surfaces and frequent misgrading in numismatic practice.

Link to John Lorenzo papers on NNP: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/524382