NNP

Eric P. Newman

Biography

Born in St. Louis, Missouri. Graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1932 and Washington (MO) University School of Law 1935. Married Evelyn Edison November 29, 1939. They had a son and a daughter.

He began to practice law in 1935. Employed as attorney 1935-43, secretary 1951-87, vice president 1964-68, executive vice president 1968-87 and finally Director of Edison Brothers Stores, Inc.

He began collecting at age nine with an 1859 cent received from his grandfather. He learned much about coins from St. Louis dealer B. G. Johnson who encouraged Newman to study the coins he wanted to buy.

Served on U.S. Assay Commission in 1967.

Author of Varieties of the Fugio Cent  in 1949.
Author of the 1776 Continental Currency Coinage : Varieties of the Fugio Cents  in 1952 as CCJ #144.
Author of Coinage For Colonial Virginia  in 1956. It was number 135 in the ANS series of monographs.
Author of The Secret of the Good Samaritan Shilling, ANS monograph 142.
Author with Ken Bressett of  The Fantastic 1804 Dollar in 1962.
Author of  The Early Paper Money of America in 1967.
Editor with Richard Doty of  Studies on Money in Early America in 1976. It was published by the ANS at $27.50.

He has written for The Numismatist, Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine and the Coin Collectors Journal.

He was a charter member of the Missouri Numismatic Society. He is a member and former governor of the NLG. He received the ANA Medal of Merit in 1964. He served as chairman of the Coins and Medals Panel of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission 1972-74.

Newman received ANA's Farran Zerbe Memorial Award in 1969, the ANS Archer M. Huntington Medal in 1978 and 15 Heath Literary Awards beginning in 1959.

Founder of the Eric P. Newman Education Society. He served as chairman of the U. S. Assay Commission in 1967. In 1968 he received the Nathan Gold Memorial Award. In 1986 he was inducted into the ANA Numismatic Hall of Fame. He was named a Numismatic News Numismatic Ambassador in 1992. In 1993 he received the ANA Exemplary Service Award and in 2001 the Burnett Anderson Memorial Award for Excellence in Numismatic Writing. In 2014 he was inducted into the SPMC Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Rittenhouse Society.

Portions of the Newman collection were exhibited in the Mercantile Money Museum in St. Louis. The museum opened March 9, 1981. He donated $2,000,000 to establish a museum on the grounds of Washington University in St. Louis. He donated funds to establish the Newman Numismatic Portal. 

Although he was never a dealer, he was inducted into the PCGS CoinFacts Coin Dealer Hall of Fame in 2019.

Evelyn Newman (1920-2015) passed away 9/1/2015.

bio: ConAut 5R; WWA 94; WWF&I 74  

profile: NN/WWH 5/6/1978; NUM 104 Oct 1991 page 1529