Henry C. Miller & Hillyer Ryder Correspondence Scanned at American Numismatic Society

Scanning of the Howland Wood papers at the American Numismatic Society continues apace, with 2,225 individual [A-R] correspondent files scanned to date. This work began in November 2023 and promises to be complete in early 2025. Wood served as ANS Curator from 1913 to 1938 and clearly dedicated substantial time to handling his daily correspondence. Hillyer Ryder is best known for his contribution in 1919 to the American Journal of Numismatics (first series, vol. 53, part I of III), which covered die varieties of Vermont and Massachusetts colonial coppers. In the same edition, Henry C. Miller published on the Connecticut copper varieties. The die variety analyses paired well with Crosby's Early Coins of America (1875), which filled in the historical and legislative background of these issues.

The Miller / Ryder work was reprinted, in 1920, by the ANS under the title The State Coinages of New England. The Wood / Ryder correspondence provides detail surrounding the production of the American Journal of Numismatics, vol. 53, as well as the reprint volume, which in practice appears to have all occurred at the same time. Despite the 1919 publication date of AJN vol. 53, production clearly ran into 1920, per Wood's letter to Ryder of February24, 1920. Production costs including "composition, paper, and printing" were split between ANS and the writers.

This cost (about $800 total to the writers) may have been the rationale for the lesser quality plates in this volume. While parts II and III of vol. 53 were produced with collotype plates, part I presented only halftones, as noted by Charles Davis in American Numismatic Literature. The correspondence indicates authors highly engaged with the ANS as the publisher, and although not explicitly discussed in the correspondence, the question of the plates surely must have been negotiated between the authors and ANS.

Image: 1787 Massachusetts Cent, Ryder 2a-F, the Crosby and Ryder plate coin, PCGS EF45. Ex. Twin Leaf (Stack's Bowers, March 2019), lot 8016, realized $90,000.

Link to Wood / Ryder correspondence:
https://archive.org/details/ryderhillyer191900amer

Link to Wood / Miller correspondence:
https://archive.org/details/millerhenryc191900amer

Link to Howland Wood ANS correspondence files:
https://archive.org/details/americannumismaticsociety?tab=collection&query=%22Howland+Wood%22

Link to American Journal of Numismatics (first series, vol. 53, part I):
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/562547