The Norweb Collection - An American Legacy

The Collectors at Work (1937-1940)

At the same time they were actively buying coins during the late 1930s, Mrs. Norweb was engaged on another, equally important, numismatic undertaking. Her father Albert's collection was now accessible to her during summer vacations and leaves from the embassy. She spent as much time as was possible working with her father's coin collection, inventorying and checking its contents. Packages that had been sent to Albert shortly before his death in 1913, and that had been bought sight unseen by his executors, had to be opened and their contents integrated into the larger collection. Duplicates had to be found and their locations in the inventory specially marked, for future sale. Coins were to be regraded, using her own revision of her father's grading system.

Albert Holden's surviving papers, notes, correspondence files, etc. had to be culled for useful information. Pedigree notes he had preserved had to be incorporated into the new inventory ledgers which were being prepared, starting after 1937. His library, or what remained of it, had to be gone through and catalogued for future reference.

The Norweb card file system seems to have been started at this time, as well. Each coin in the collection was given an inventory number in the ledgers, which also contained some descriptive commentary; we have seen some, above. The inventory number was then transferred to an index card, on which the coin's full description was written, including such data as the denomination, date, grade, reference number (i.e., Sheldon, Crosby, Overton, etc, as appropriate). When new reference works were published, the card files were revised to reflect the new numbering systems introduced. Rarity ratings were also assigned to scarce pieces. The card files contained information about the purchase of each coin, such as the vendor's name, date of sale, and purchase price (entered in her father's cost code). In later days, comments by numismatic researchers about individual rarities in the collection were added.

A separate clippings file was begun about this time, also. It contained copies of newspaper or journal articles about particular coins in the collection, especially as they related to the sale or the history of important coins. Finally, a rarities ledger was started, which was to contain photographs and commentary about rare coins in the Norweb Collection. However, this latter project was never maintained, due probably to the sheer number of major coins the Norwebs accumulated over the next 20 or so years.

Mrs. Norweb had learned her habits of orderly record keeping from her father, and Mr. Norweb brought to the collection his own, innate sense of the proper order of things. Together, they made a formidable pair. As the record keeping system they created in these early years grew, they could still manage its size with seeming ease. A numismatic question could be quickly answered by reference to the card files or the clippings files. Questions about a particular coin they owned could be resolved immediately, as their card file system was arranged in Guide Book order. Looking up a particular coin only meant going to the appropriate section of the card file to find the special card for that coin. The card contained almost all the information they had about the coin; if there were other sources of information available, such as clippings in the clippings file or a photograph and commentary in the rarities file, references to those other sources were also listed on the card for the coin.

All this orderly record keeping required constant attention and the help of other hands. In the beginning, the Norweb children were pressed into the task. Later, Ambassador and Mrs. Norweb engaged a full time secretary for the job.

There was much work to be done on Albert Holden's coin collection during the late 1930s. Time was of the essence, too. The Norwebs knew as well as anyone else could have, that a war with Germany was inevitable sooner or later, and that once it had begun their lives would be consumed by it. Additionally, they knew that Henry's diplomatic service could carry him far from the United States at any moment, should he be reassigned by the State Department. Accordingly, all the help that was available with ordering the collection was gratefully accepted.

R. Henry Norweb, Jr., his brother Albert, and their sister Jeanne were put to work helping their mother catalogue a large collection of Connecticut state coppers. As we have described earlier, this collection had been sent to Albert Holden, Mrs. Norweb's father, shortly before his death in 1913. He had not opened the parcel, and the collection had been purchased by his executors as a debt on the estate. Mrs. Norweb and her children set to work classifying these difficult coins, using her copy of Henry C. Miller's standard reference, The State Coinage of Connecticut (1920).

The Connecticut coppers were entered into the inventory books, being assigned numbers 601 to 756. Under number 653 Mrs. Norweb wrote: "This whole collection of Connecticut cents of 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788 were in the house on approval at the time of AFH's death. The trustees in clearing up his affairs bought them sight unseen. E.M.N. [Emery May Norweb] came across them a few years ago and catalogued them 1937."