Newman Numismatic Portal Sponsors Scanning at ANS

Sponsored by the Newman Numismatic Portal, Internet Archive has launched scanning operations at the American Numismatic Society and is currently working through the American auction catalogs in the ANS Rare Book Room.  Equipment arrived at the ANS in early December, and scanned documents are now appearing online in the ANS Collection on the Internet Archive website (https://archive.org/details/americannumismaticsociety).One of the first catalogs scanned was Edward Cogan’s sale of the Levick collection from December 1859 (Adams 5, Davis 252), representing a typical mix for the day of federal coinage (silver and copper, but no gold), colonials, patterns, Washington pieces, and a selection of American tokens and medals.  Levick is perhaps best known for the Levick plate of 1793 large cents appearing in the April, 1869 issue of the American Journal of Numismatics, and it is no surprise that the 1793 cents in this sale were among the most highly prized lots.  Five are listed, without varieties, with an average price realized of over eight dollars, as compared with early silver dollars or patterns, many of which sold for two or three dollars each.  This particular copy is inscribed by Levick to the ANS and was donated in 1866.