Two weeks ago I wrote that "James V. McDermott never owned a 1913 Liberty Nickel". I willstart the story with the listing for McDermott as it appeared in American NumismaticBiographies (ANB) on the morning of Friday, November 25, 2022.

On that morning I set out to find his birthdate to improve the listing. I ran into problems. I couldnot find him in the U. S. Census or the other references I use frequently. There were two obviouspossibilities. Either his name was misspelled in the Census or his name is misspelled in ANB.

His name appears in print most often as J. V. McDermott. A search of the Newman NumismaticPortal has 678 listings for and just 24 listings for The first reference as James was in Coin World in 1968.

Eventually I found listings for John Vere McDermott that matched other known facts. I wentback to the Newman Numismatic Portal and found two references to John Vere McDermott inHeritage auction catalogs from 2010 and 2014. Those listings give his date of birth as November10, 1897, which matches what I found.

Although The Numismatist gave his place of birth as Iowa, the Census gives it as Wisconsin andI will go with that. His parents were Patrick McDermott, a railroad yard foreman and Elizabeth.

The ANB listing was incorrect for thirty years and no one complained. It should be correctedwhen the Newman Numismatic Portal is updated in January of 2023.

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
J. V. MCDERMOTT AND HIS 1913 LIBERTY HEAD NICKEL(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n28a15.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: NOVEMBER 27, 2022 : Smith Teases 1913 Liberty Nickel Article(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n48a12.html)