As the print v. digital question evolves, more and more content is being produced in digital form only and never reaches print. Although world print production is somewhat steady (declining in advanced economies, and increasing in growth economies such as India, China, Brazil), the creation of bo...
Read more...This week a Newman Portal user searched for “Gutzon Borglum.” This is one of those search terms that sounds like an answer to a World Series of Numismatics question – the only problem is figuring out what the question is supposed to be. To the rescue comes the Newman Portal, and the most helpful ...
Read more...As noted in last week’s E-Sylum, the ATTS Newsletter, published by the American Tax Token Society, is now available on the Newman Portal for the years 1971-2010. State sales taxes are today a routine matter with fractional cents rounded off as necessary. It was not always so. With the introductio...
Read more...Did you ever wonder where the mintage figures in the Guide Book to United States Coins come from? In most cases they’ve been ferreted out piece by piece from U.S. Mint records at the National Archives (NARA). Walter Breen, under the sponsorship of Wayte Raymond, did much of this work in the 1950...
Read more...This week a Newman Portal user searched for the term “Black Bess.” Newman Portal identifies but a single useful source, the 1882 Annual Report of the Director of the Mint Upon the Production of Precious Metals. “Black Bess” refers to a mine in Roop County, NV, in the northwestern part of that sta...
Read more...This week a Newman Portal user searched for “Robinson Hartford Numismatist.” Pete Smith’s American Numismatic Biographies quickly identifies Alfred S. Robinson (1836-1878) of Hartford, CT, who commissioned copies of colonial rarities in addition to personal trade cards. From there we find mention...
Read more...Founded in 1972, the National Scrip Collectors Association (NSCA) is dedicated to the study of coal company scrip and tokens, and the history of coal mining companies as it relates to the usage of these items. The NSCA issues a quarterly publication, Scrip Talk, which includes club news, origina...
Read more...In 2013, Bruce Smith described a manuscript containing Harry W. Rapp’s extensions to the 1922 Howland Wood text on U.S. commemoratives. Wood’s monograph, covering 1892-1922, was extended by Rapp to 1939. Bruce Smith has recently loaned this manuscript to the Newman Portal for scanning, and the fu...
Read more...Tokens and medals are fertile ground for numismatic research. The fundamental questions of our discipline ask why an object was created, who created it and how manufactured, and finally how the object was used or distributed. For a series of coins these questions might have all the same answers....
Read more...This week a Newman Portal searched for the George H. Earle auction sale catalog prepared by Henry Chapman in 1912. The Chapman brothers Henry and Samuel set up shop in Philadelphia in 1879, and, for reasons unknown, parted ways 27 years later. From there both continued to successfully market a nu...
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