PREV ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
PREV FULL ISSUE
V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE RESEARCH REVEALS J. V. MCDERMOTT'S NAMEAmerican Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted this article on coin dealer J. V. McDermott. Thanks! -Editor 
The McDermott 1913 Liberty Nickel
J. V. McDermott
Two weeks ago I wrote that "James V. McDermott never owned a 1913 Liberty Nickel". I will start the story with the listing for McDermott as it appeared in American Numismatic Biographies (ANB) on the morning of Friday, November 25, 2022.
Coin dealer in Milwaukee. In about 1957 his wife was driving alone when her car stalled on a railroad track. She abandoned the car shortly before it was hit by a train and $25,000 worth of coins were scattered. Most were recovered. Mac carried a newspaper clipping that reported him dead in that accident. He was best known as the owner of a 1913 Liberty nickel purchased in 1942. He exhibited it extensively both at public shows and privately among friends. It was shown so extensively that it was rumored to be more than one place at the same time. Although there is no doubt that McDermott owned a legitimate coin, he may also have occasionally exhibited an altered coin. He died in a hospital in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On that morning I set out to find his birthdate to improve the listing. I ran into problems. I could not find him in the U. S. Census or the other references I use frequently. There were two obvious possibilities. Either his name was misspelled in the Census or his name is misspelled in ANB.
His name appears in print most often as J. V. McDermott. A search of the Newman Numismatic
Portal has 678 listings for Eventually I found listings for John Vere McDermott that matched other known facts. I went back to the Newman Numismatic Portal and found two references to John Vere McDermott in Heritage auction catalogs from 2010 and 2014. Those listings give his date of birth as November 10, 1897, which matches what I found. Although The Numismatist gave his place of birth as Iowa, the Census gives it as Wisconsin and I will go with that. His parents were Patrick McDermott, a railroad yard foreman and Elizabeth. The ANB listing was incorrect for thirty years and no one complained. It should be corrected when the Newman Numismatic Portal is updated in January of 2023.
To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|