Getting to Know Eric P. Newman, Part 2: Am I Not a Man and Brother

Lianna Spurrier has created the second (of five) videos in the Getting to Know Eric P. Newman series on Newman Portal. Apropos of Black History Month, this video covers Newman’s paper “The Promotion and Suppression of Hard Times Tokens,” from the 1995 Coinage of the Americas Conference proceedings, which centered on the AM I NOT AND BROTHER American hard times token (Low-54A). Spurrier intersperses video of Newman discussing his research at the 1989 ANA convention (video captured at the time by David Lisot) and explains the rarity of the piece, noting that only four examples are known. The real treasure hunt here is Newman’s quest to discover the origin of the piece, ultimately uncovered in a 19th century anti-slavery newspaper after a substantial search.Link to Getting to Know Eric P. Newman, Part 2 video on NNP: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/574413Link to Newman’s 1989 ANA presentation, Promotion & Suppression of Hard Times Tokens: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/544892Link to the ANS Coinage of the Americas Conference Proceedings (1995): https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/512500