Newman Portal Search of the Week: Betts-111

An NNP user recently searched for Betts-111, “Betts” referring of course to C. Wyllys Betts’ American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals (1894), which catalogs 623 such pieces. John Kraljevich and Erik Goldstein conducted a related exercise at their recent ANA Summer Seminar course in colonial numismatics.  Students were randomly assigned 3-digit numbers and instructed to prepare a 5-minute presentation on the Betts medal of the same number. We can report that this exercise resulted in several searches of the Newman Portal.  In any case, Betts-111, the Society of Merchants medal by Duvivier, depicts Louis XV and is dated 1715. A search of the Newman Portal reveals but a single citation, in Joe Levine’s Auction #85 (June 2015), lot 77, where he cataloged a gilt silver example as excessively rare, and missing from the LaRivere, Ford, and Adams collections.  Levine noted only two examples, this and another apparently in the Bibliothèque Nationale.Link to Presidential Coin and Antique Sale #85 on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=511514&AuctionId=511937&page=76Link to Betts’ American Colonial History on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/519282