Eric P. Newman

Eric Pfeiffer Newman (May 25, 1911 – November 15, 2017) was an American numismatist. He wrote several "works about early American coins and paper money considered the standards on their subjects", as well as hundreds of articles. Newman sold his coins in auctions in 2013–2014 for over $70 million and used most of that money to fund the Newman Numismatic Education Society and its Newman Numismatic Portal to "make the literature and images of numismatics, particularly American numismatics, available to everyone on a free and forever basis."

Family Newman was born to Samuel Elijah and Rose (Pfeiffer) Newman in St. Louis, Missouri.

Education and career Newman earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1932 and a Juris Doctor from Washington University School of Law in 1935.

In 1938, Newman became vice president of the Missouri Numismatic Society. In 1939, he was appointed Secretary-Treasurer of the Central States Numismatics Society.

In a 1977 article in The Numismatist, Newman shed light on previously unrecognized contributions of Robert Morris, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a major financial backer during the American Revolutionary War. According to Newman's New York Times obituary, after the United States gained its independence, the wealthy Morris sustained the government of the young nation during a "grave fiscal crisis" by issuing "vast quantities of notes in denominations from $20 to $100" backed by his own personal credit. Antiques magazine stated, after conducting research, that this was "almost certainly the earliest published illustration of a bird by John James Audubon."

Personal life and legacy Newman married Evelyn Edison on November 29, 1939. They had two children.

The Newmans supported a variety of philanthropic efforts including medical research, academia, and St. Louis cultural affairs. The couple established the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society in 1981. In March 2016, the society launched the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP), administered through Washington University in St. Louis. The NNP launched with over 100,000 pages worth of over 3,000 documents digitized to both preserve them and make them accessible to a wider range of collectors. In 2003, the Newmans donated two million dollars to Washington University in St. Louis to establish the Newman Money Museum, housed in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Evelyn Newman died on September 1, 2015, at the age of 95. Eric Newman died on November 15, 2017, at the age of 106.

Awards and honors Among his many honors are the Archer M. Huntington Medal (the highest award of the American Numismatic Society) and the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1991. The American Numismatic Association inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1986 and named him Numismatist of the Year in 1996.