When I compiled the recent listing of hundred-year-old numismatists, I left off the name of Dr. Henry Beckwith. I apologize, but there is a reasonable explanation.

Henry Beckwith was born on May 7, 1869, in Norwich, Connecticut. His parents were Gordon and Anna Witter Beckwith. He was noted for assembling a collection of high quality large cents sold at auction by S. H. Chapman on April 27, 1923. Walter Breen wrote an article calling Beckwith

In the current version of American Numismatic Biographies, available on the Newman Numismatic Portal, I wrote that

This followed a series of articles I submitted to Penny-Wise. In the issue of September 15, 1990, I wrote of Beckwith,

My source for this was a talk C. Douglas Smith made to the EAC convention in Los Angeles. A transcription of the talk was published in Penny-Wise for July 15, 1978.

My profiles of Beckwith did not include his date of death. That was a gap I tried to fill this week. Turns out he died in Nahant, Massachusetts, on August 6, 1958, at age 89. At the time of the 1923 auction, he was 53, not 70. It is an amusing story but not supported by the facts.

Doug Smith referred to him as Henry C. Beckwith and that middle initial had me concerned for about an hour. There was no Henry C. Beckwith in the 1900 Census who was a physician. His 1917 Connecticut Military Census registration had his profession as physician and age as 47.

Occasionally I make a mistake. When informed of a mistake by a reader, I correct it. It took 32 years for me to find this one myself.

To read the Beckwith sale catalog on the Newman Portal, see:
THE COLLECTION OF CENTS OF THE UNITED STATES IN SUPERLATIVE PRESERVATION OF DR. HENRY W. BECKWITH, NEW HAVEN, CONN.(https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=22&AuctionId=511010)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
PURNIE MOORE (1907-2008)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n45a16.html)