How many people have been honored "America's greatest numismatist"?
Zoins
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In another thread, there was a question wondering if the ANA would put up a statue for America's greatest numismatist which got me wondering who is this person?
A quick Google search found one person, Edward Theodore Newell, who was recognized as such by the American Journal of Archaeology. This is mentioned in the article "The Dating of the Coinage of Alexander the Great" by Zoë Sophia Kontes, emphasis mine. He was president of the American Numismatic Society from 1916 to 1941.
Has anyone else ever been honored as "America's greatest numismatist"?
The Dating of the Coinage of Alexander the Great by Zoë Sophia Kontes
But at that moment the study of the Alexander coinage was about to be revolutionized by a young American collector and scholar, Edward T. Newell. Newell graduated from Yale in 1907 and took an MA two years later. He always remained a private scholar, laboring in his work rooms at the American Numismatic Society in New York where his collection of Greek coins today forms the backbone of the Society's world-famous collection. After his premature death in 1941, his obituary in the American Journal of Archaeology characterized him as "America's greatest numismatist."
Comments
Pierre Eugene du Simitiere would have undoubtedly won the title in the late 1700s.
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Cool article.
At a minimum, Newell was "in the right place at the right time" to classify 6000 coins from the Demanhur hoard of 1905.
Certainly a dream task for a numismatist.