Newman Portal users may now perform text searches within the catalogs of a single auction firm. Simply enter the firm name in the “publisher” field of the advanced search page (the list of firms supported are on the Newman Portal auction catalogs landing page). For example, entering “Stacks” in ...
Read more...While scanning U.S. Mint Director correspondence for the Newman Portal, Roger W. Burdette located an 1890 letter from Director Edward Leech responding to a congressman’s inquiry on the origin of “In God We Trust” on U.S. coinage. The motto first appeared on the two-cent piece in 1864, although p...
Read more...A Newman Portal user recently searched for “Kagin-15.” Having no idea what this was, we entered the search ourselves, and learned that this refers to Bechtler gold pieces as catalogued by Don Kagin. Bechtler gold was privately coined in North Carolina from 1831 and 1852, and, as examples are pri...
Read more...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 cour...
Read more...While combing the stacks at Washington University in St. Louis, we recently discovered a 1973 government publication discussing alternative compositions for the Lincoln cent. The study, Alternative Materials for One Cent Coinage, was initiated in response to rising copper prices, as the Treasury ...
Read more...NNP Search of the Week: Galapagos IslandsThe Galapagos Islands, located 600 miles west of Ecuador, are today best known for their rich biodiversity, as popularized by Charles Darwin in the 19th century. A recent Newman Portal user entered “Galapagos,” in search of numismatic connections with this...
Read more...Public art reflects the identity, history, and priorities of the nation that produced it, from the largest statue to the smallest coin. As a discipline, numismatics helps us understand the imagery that appears on coins, medals, and paper money: who designed it, what inspired it, where it was used...
Read more...We are pleased to announce John Kraljevich will contribute to the NNP Blog under the headline The Portal Opens. With no further ado, John's first follows.The Portal OpensThe root of Eric Newman’s genius for numismatic research is twofold: first, deep sourcing, employing the best numismatic and no...
Read more...The Legal Tender Act of 1862, authorizing $150 million in national “greenbacks,” along with the National Bank Act the following year, shifted control of the nation’s currency from a patchwork system of local banks to a centralized authority. The National Bank Act was hotly contested in Congress, ...
Read more...One of the things included on the Newman Portal (select any landing page under “Library” to view) is a running list of search terms entered into NNP. It’s always interesting to see what our users are looking for - one of the terms appearing this week was “blacksmith tokens." An NNP search locat...
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