John S. Davenport

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John S. Davenport (born May 12, 1907 in Buffalo , New York, † June 14, 2001 ) was an American college professor, numismatist and non-fiction author . The lists of large silver coins he has compiled have been the standard reference for thalers and crowns for decades . His special area of ​​interest were the German thalers.

Life

Davenport was born in Buffalo , New York in 1907 . He received his BA from Cornell University in 1928 and his MA from Harvard University in 1929 . In 1934 a PhD from the University of North Carolina followed .

As a professor of English literature he was from 1929 to 1931 at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and then from 1945 at Knox College in Galesburg , Illinois . He retired in 1972 and later moved to Coral Gables , Florida. In the 1980s, after decades of heavy smoking, he had to use a larynx microphone to communicate.

Work and action

5- Lati coins (1931): "Crown" number 214 at Davenport

Davenport started collecting coins in 1921. The impetus for the publications on large silver coins was the lack of appropriate English-language, but also more recent German-language literature on the subject. In the 1940s he began to publish coin lists in specialist journals.

Then in 1947 he published his first book on large silver coins: European Crowns since 1800 . German Talers since 1800 followed in 1949 . With Crown Davenport refers not only to the officially designated as Crown English coins, but all the crowns on the size and content of silver resembling non-Germanic coins of Europe . He admits that the division of the individual coins into talers or crowns is somewhat arbitrary - especially because the Austrian taler coins are listed in the crowns band. Davenport continued to add further books on the subject to these two volumes well into old age.

Davenport created the first comprehensive numbering of almost all known thaler and crown coins. This complete list comprises 10,063 thaler coins and, counted separately, 8,899 crowns .

Davenport corresponded with many US and European numismatists ( e.g. Max Mehl, Enno van Gelder, Gunther Probszt , Mark Salton, Wayte Raymond, Bernhard Koch, Richard S. Yeoman, Friedrich Wilandt, Wilhelm Jesse , Gert Hatz , Franco Panvini Rosati , Otto Mørkholm , Randolph Zander). Much of his written numismatic estate is administered by the American Numismatic Society .

Honors

In 1962 he was appointed to the United States Assay Commission , which was responsible for the official state inspection of the gold and silver coins issued. In 1988 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Numismatic Association .

Literature by John S. Davenport

German thalers and other larger silver coins

  • German Talers since 1800 (1949).
  • Oversize Multiple Talers of the Brunswick Duchies and Saxe-Lauenburg (1956).
  • German Talers, 1700-1800 (1958) Hewitt, Chicago.
  • German Talers since 1800 (1964). Second edition, Spink & Son, London.
  • German Talers, 1700-1800 (Rev Ed. 1979) Spink & Son, London, ISBN 978-0-907605-02-7
  • German Church and City Talers 1600-1700 (1975). Second edition.
  • German Secular Talers, 1600-1700 (1976).
  • German Talers, 1500-1600 (1979).
  • The Coinage of the Ernestine and Minor Albertine Saxon Dutchies (1988).
  • Silver Gulden 1559-1763 (1991).

European large silver coins without "Germany"

  • European Crowns since 1800 (excluding the German states) (1947) Foster & Steward, Buffalo, New York.
  • European Crowns, 1700-1800 (1961). Printed by Hewitt, Chicago.
  • European Crowns and Talers, 1700-1800 (1964). Spink & Son, London.
  • European Crowns, 1600-1700 (1974). Hewitt, Chicago.
  • European Crowns, 1484-1600 (1977). Printed in Germany.

swell

  • Alexander Davis (2014) A Crown and Taler Man, Reflections on Dr. John S. Davenport. Coinweek , October 2, 2014, accessed September 24, 2015
  • Biographical Note, Collection in John S. Davenport papers, 1954-1996, 8.5 cubic feet (9 boxes) , Numismatic Society of America, accessed September 24, 2015

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ancientfaces.com , accessed on September 24, 2015
  2. ^ John S. Davenport (1947) European Crowns since 1800 (excluding the German states). Foster & Stewart, Buffalo, NY
personal data
SURNAME Davenport, John S.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American numismatist
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Buffalo , New York
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 2001