NEWMAN SALE XI VOLUME 2 LITERATURE HIGHLIGHTS

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 43, October 28, 2018, Article 18

Here are some more highlights from the upcoming two-volume Heritage sale XI of the Eric P. Newman collection. -Editor

Volume 2 features items from Eric P. Newman’s library, including his correspondence files as well as the archives of Roger S. Cohen, Jr. and R. Tettenhorst (Bernard Edison). Rarities include 19th- and early 20th-century plated auction catalogs. Within the important early references are three copies of Eckfeldt and DuBois with actual samples of California gold, both editions of Edward Maris’s guide to 1794 large cents, and two copies of Edward Maris’s New Jersey tome. The cataloging is preceded by David Fanning's entertaining introduction to the Library section, which details important information about terminology, abbreviations, and digitization.

A special offering is the Eric P. Newman Collection of Heath’s Counterfeit Detectors, the subject of his 1991 article that appeared in the American Numismatic Association Centennial Anthology. The article is reprinted in this volume with permission of the ANA. Newman’s collection includes 64 lots in the Signature session that appear in the present volume, along with six additional lots that are recorded in volume I.

Two uncommon pieces in this sale are located in St. Louis. First is Eric P. Newman's Wooton desk, his workspace for over 40 years and an object of beauty in its own right. Second is B.G. Johnson's historic cabinet, which held the inventory of the St. Louis Stamp and Coin Company and later housed coins from Eric's collection. Numismatists can surely imagine working at Eric's desk and placing pieces from their collections within the drawers that held coins owned by "Colonel" E.H.R. Green, B.G. Johnson, and Eric P. Newman.

Cohen, Jr., Roger S. Numismatic Archives Pertaining to United States Half Cents. Seven boxes of Cohen's personal archives, including manuscripts, typescripts, and other pre-publication materials for both editions of Cohen's American Half Cents, voluminous correspondence with other half cent specialists, collection inventories, research papers, annotated catalogues and other printed materials, photographs, invoices for both coins and books, business documents regarding the printing and distribution of his books, and other matter concerning the study and collecting of U.S. half cents.

Roger S. Cohen, Jr. (1927-1990) was an accountant by vocation and a numismatist by avocation, whose focus became the study of the United States half cents, a series he felt had lived for too long in the shadow of their "big sisters," the long-studied and much-beloved large cents. Unsatisfied with the existing works on the subject and impatient with the slow progress being made by others in the field, he determined to write his own guide to the series, publishing the first edition of American Half Cents: The "Little Half Sisters" in 1971. The book was well-received, and a second edition was published a decade later in 1981. Cohen wrote that his book was "aimed at the person who has been collecting for a number of years and has an interest in coins but needs to get into something else other than date collecting or the filling the holes in the album routine..." (letter to Paul Munson, July 12, 1971). Writing and maintaining the book became the focus of his numismatic activities, with him acknowledging that it was "one hell of a lot more work than I ever dreamed."

Tett's personal correspondence constitutes a remarkable portrait of serious coin collecting in the second half of the 20th century and the beginnings of the next. As a record of the world of early copper, it is unparalleled. It is at times highly informative, and at other times amusing. His kindness, warmth, and humor are almost always on display, and his peacemaking personality comes through as he attempts to play diplomat between the Cohen and Breen camps in the Half Cent War. He took amusement in the fact that he had become famous in the coin collecting world, while most people continued to be ignorant of his actual name.

The Tettenhorst Archives
Tettenhorst, Robert (pseud. Bernard Edison). Numismatic Archives of Bernard Edison, a.k.a. R. Tettenhorst. Ten boxes of correspondence, invoices and purchase records, research papers, photographs, and other material primarily related to Edison's numismatic activities (conducted under the name of R. Tettenhorst), but also touching on various other topics. 1952-2014. Edison donated his numismatic archives to the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society (EPNNES).

Eckfeldt, Jacob R., and William E. Du Bois. A Manual of Gold and Silver Coins of All Nations, Struck within the Past Century... [bound with] Supplement to the Manual of Coins and Bullion. [bound with] Addenda and Corrections, to June, 1851. Philadelphia: Published at the Assay Office of the Mint, 1842-1851. Small 4to, contemporary brown half morocco with mottled sides; spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt. (4), iv, (5)-220; (221)-240; (241)-242 pages; fine frontispiece engraving of the Mint building; 16 attractively engraved plates of coins, all on coated paper with original tissue guards; very fine plate of California and Mormon coins printed in gold and in relief on a royal blue background; two actual samples of California gold on page 235 mounted under a small cardboard rectangle with round windows to allow viewing.

The extremely rare December 1849 supplement comprising pages 221-240 contains the attractive plate of California and Mormon gold coins, the tipped-in Mormon plate, and the first appearance of the famous California gold samples. This copy also includes the even more rare (if less significant) 2-page 1851 addenda, including a depiction of the new three-cent silver piece. Fine. Estimate $4,000.

Maris, Edward. Varieties of the Copper Issues of the United States Mint in the Year 1794. Philadelphia: Printed by William K. Bellows, Corner Fourth Street and Apple Tree Alley, 1869. Small 8vo [18 by 12 cm], original printed paper covers. 15, (1) pages. Minor discoloration to covers; old fold down the center. Very good. This is the first separately published work on United States cents and half cents. Remembered beyond its landmark status mostly for the colorful appellations given by Dr. Maris to the 39 varieties of 1794 cents that he managed to identify: the Coquette, Scarred Head, Venus Marina, Roman Plica, Double Chin, Patagonian, and so on. Rare: only a fraction of the 100 copies originally printed appear to have survived.

THE BOOK BAZARRE

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