In organizing the Eric P. Newman papers, we located an original letter from the important Philadelphia collector Joseph Mickley to Francis Lepire, dated March 19, 1862. Mickley offers avariety of coins at varying prices but more importantly comments on the growth of the coin market following the disappearance of large cents, in addition to the Coinage Act of 1853, which reduced thesilver content of U.S. coinage. Mickley suggests that medals and foreign coins might be easier to pursue than American coins, and does nothing to mask his interest in selling the former. Newmanpublished this letter in Coin World, 10/29/1969, but, to our knowledge, it has not been seen since then.

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Link to Mickley letter on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/1371