SANTA CLAUS ON THE NEWMAN NUMISMATIC PORTAL

 

There is No Santa Claus in Numismatics

An old saw holds that there is no Santa Claus in numismatics. A quick check of the Newman Portal reveals the saw to not be so old; indeed, most of the early uses appear in the Bowers house publications beginning in 1970. Bowers in turn credits Lee Hewitt, but even there the Numismatic Scrapbook uses the phrase only beginning in 1969. Regardless of when it first appeared, today we can say that Santa Claus appears frequently in numismatics, with 3,486 records identified across the Newman Portal.

Santa Claus notes are especially popular among paper money collectors, with this New Ulm, MN proof note attracting a winning bid of $35,250 in the Newman VI sale (Heritage Auctions, April 23, 2015), lot 19159. The Heritage catalog notes that this is the only known Santa Claus vignette among Minnesota notes. The rendering of Santa Claus by Baldwin, Adams & Co. would not be terribly recognizable to modern viewers, but the sleigh and reindeer clearly invoke the mythology of St. Nick.

Link to Santa Claus items on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/searchwithterms?searchterm=santa%20claus

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