The invoices of St. Louis dealer Burdette G. Johnson, covering the period from 1940 - 1947, are now available in the Newman Numismatic Portal collection on Internet Archive, at https://archive.org/details/bgj_invoices

The Johnson invoices consist of thousands of typescript pages and have been divided into individual correspondents by year. Represented among the thicker files are dealers such as Tom Elder (167 pages for 1942) and New Netherlands (122 pages for 1940). The files convey a sense of the rare coin trade in the 1940s. The largest dealers engaged substantial typing pools to prepare invoices, constantly shipped material on approval among themselves, and managed an extraordinary amount of manual accounting. The scope of the effort involved is readily apparent upon browsing these invoices.

Before we had even announced the availability of the Johnson invoices on Internet Archive, eagle-eyed researcher Saul Teichman spotted aninvoice containing pedigree information on the 1844-O (unique proof) eagle. Johnson offered the coin to F.C.C. Boyd in 1940.

Most of the cataloging in the Johnson invoices is terse, but Johnson could not hold back on this piece. "1844 Perfect brilliant proof. This is not a coin with proof surfaces but an actual proof, as is shown by its entire appearance. I imagine it was struck at Philadelphia before the dies were sent to N.O. It is certainly a great rarity and in all likelihood entirely unique." Johnson priced the coin at $225, about ten times the price of a "common" eagle.

We find also that in 1941 Johnson offered Hans Schulman a rare broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence, printed by order of the Rhode Island Assembly shortly after July 4th, 1776. Schulman apparently declined the offer, for Newman himself eventually acquired this document, as noted in the Harvard Library Bulletin (Vol. 3, No. 1, Winter 1949).

This broadside copy of the Declaration has recently been donated by the Newman family to Washington University in St. Louis as part of its Olin Library transformation. These are but two remarkable items from this rich archive, and we expect many more will be discovered as researchers become aware of this unique resource.

To read the 1844-O Proof Eagle invoice, see: https://archive.org/stream/fccboydinvoicesf1940john#page/n11/mode/1up

To view the Declaration broadside invoice, see: https://archive.org/stream/hmfschulmaninvoi1941john#page/n44/mode/1up

To read more on the Olin Library transformation, see: Reimagining Olin Library (http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/olin-library-transformation.aspx)

To browse the Johnson invoices, see:
Burdette G. Johnson Invoices (https://archive.org/details/bgj_invoices)

Saul Teichman adds:

Roger Burdette writes:

Dave Bowers adds: