TUTHILL, LUTHER BROWN

Copyright © 2011-2018 John N. Lupia III

Tuthill, Luther Brown (1859-1930). Numismatist, paper money, coin and stamp collector and dealer. He was a charter member of the ANA

being given the member No. 32. The March 1892 issue of The Numismatist however, lists him as member no. 90. He was an active member of the

ANS since May 21, 1900. He was a specialist in paper money, especially CSA notes, stamps and coins. As a charter member he wrote for The Numismatist “I think

your Numismatic Headlight feature a good one. Collectors like to see how men they read about, and deal with look.” (October 1892)

He was the first-born of five children of Effingham Tuthill (1834-1917) and Clarissa Catherine Brown (1836-1876), born on May 3, 1859, Port Jefferson,

Suffolk County, New York.

About 1872 the family moved from New York and settled South Creek, Beaufort County, North Carolina.

His mother died there when he was 17 years old. Around the 6th anniversary of his mother’s death his father remarried a younger woman by 20

years. His stepmother was named Margaret Hill (1854-1886), who was only five years older than Luther. She died four years later at age 32 in 1886

when Luther was 27 years old. His father was one of the founders of the South Creek Baptist Church built in 1884 while married to Margaret Hill.

Seven years after the death of his second wife his father married his 3rd wife Augusta Fowler (1848-1915).

His second stepmother died a few months prior to the publication cited: Price List No. 27 (1916), when Luther was 57 years old. Evidently the

numbers of his Price Lists are irregular chronologically. Price List No. 13 is on Fractional Currency and was distributed with his letterhead and

letter dated March 24, 1898. His price list No. 24, for example, issued for 1911 was released for circulation in January 1910.

On November 21, 1888, he married Eliza Calvert Springer (1865-1924), at her home in Oregon, Beaufort County, North Carolina. They had five children :

Marion Tuthill Mayo (1889-1924); Irene Tuthill (1892-); Dorothy Tuthill (1895-); Samuel Springer Tuthill (1897-); and Myron Bartley Tuthill (1897-1970)

[Fig. 1] The reference to the iconic obverse device of the 1860 New York "store card" of George Hampden Lovett bearing the left profile image

of a crony witch with a protruding chin wearing a tall pointed hat riding a broomstick and carrying a crutch in her right hand below, the initials

of the die engraver GHL was adopted by Tuthill and used as his logo in advertisements and on his business stationery. Above and around her is

the legend : WE ALL HAVE OUR HOBBIES. A color photograph of this store card also appears on the cover of Russell Rulau, U. S. Merchant

Tokens 1845-1860. First Edition. (Krausse, 1982).

[Fig. 2] Luther B. Tuthill advertisement in The Numismatist, Vol. VII, No. 1, January (1894) : end paper ad after page 16

A photograph of the Lovett store card of the witch with legend : WE ALL HAVE OUR HOBBIES, is also in Tuthill’s advertisement published in The

Numismatist, February, November, December (1894), August (1895) : verso of the second leaf; May (1896) He published an article “Confederate

Treasury Notes,” The Numismatist, Vol. 7, No. 6, June (1894) and Vol. VIII, (1895) : 106; July 1896 ad with no coin.

There are two possible links between this Lovett design and Tuthill. First, George Hampden Lovett cut the original seal of the Confederate States of

America Treasury Department. Tuthill specialized in Confederate currency and therefore he may have acquired Lovett’s store card for his

numismatic association with the Confederacy. Second, a line drawing of Lovett’s store card first appeared in one of the publications of Ebenezer

Locke Mason’s (1826-1901), Mason’s Monthly Illustrated Coin Collector’s Magazine, and Price Current, Vol. 1, No. 1, June (1884) : 13.

[Fig. 3] Mason’s Monthly Illustrated Coin Collector’s Magazine, and Price Current, Vol. 1, No. 1, June (1884) : 13.

This line drawing is a copy of the store card that additionally appeared in Vol. 1 on pages, 18, 36, 59, 67, 86, 99, 104, and 113. The link

with Mason’s magazine appears to be compounded by the use of phonetic spellings, which, Neil Shafer in the E-Sylum, Vol. 9, No. 24, June 25, 2006,

mistakes for misspellings. This sort of phonetic spelling gimmick was first used in September 1870 by the innovative and pioneering New York coin and

postage stamp dealer and publisher William P. Brown (1841/2-1929/30), in his publication, De Kuriositi Kabinet. Mason cites this use of phonetic spelling of some

of the text in a passage titled: TU OUR RIDURZ, in what he identifies as Old Saxon revived by the American Philological Society in the late

1867 in: Mason’s Coin and Stamp Collector’s Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 9, September (1870) : 143. (see also “The Saxon language-its eclipse

and relumination: An address delivered before the American Philological Society,” Dec. 19, 1867). Mason continued to critique this phonetic

language calling it splintered. Vol. IV, No. 11, November (1870) : 173.

Fig. Postal Card Circular announcing Ed Frossard's 104th Sale, postmarked November 25, 1890.

Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library.

Fig. Chapman Brothers circular announcing the Boeing/Bridgman Sale sent to Luther B. Tuthill, postmarked New York,

October 27, 1891, 8:30 PM, probably sent by Scott Stamp & Coin Co. Ltd. for their client. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library,

Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

He exhibited a complete series of C.S.A. notes, The Numismatist, Vol. 7, No. 9, September (1894) : 211.

Fig. Luther Brown Tuthill correspondence to the Chapman Brothers postmarked February 7, 1896, South Creek, North Carolina.

Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive. Estimate $300-$400.

There are over fifteen pieces of correspondence from Luther B. Tuthill to the Chapman Brothers from 1890 to 1907 in the Lupia Numismatic Library,

Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive, that have been digitally cataloged so far. When 1909 to 1930 are completed

an updated count will be provided and some photographs. (Please note a severe data loss occurred in June 2017)

The 1900 U. S. Census lists him working as a clerk in a general store.

Luther B. Tuthill was included in a list of dealers published in the The Numismatist, Vol. XIII (1900). (cited by Q. David Bowers, who mentions

Luther Tuthill in a list in: Virgil Brand: The Man and His Era. Profile of a Numismatist. (Wolfeboro, New Hampshire) : 93.)

In April 1900, Tuthill donated a rare copy of The Vicksburg Daily Citizen, a Confederate newspaper, dated July 24, 1863, printed on wallpaper, to the Suffolk County

Historical Society, since he formerly lived there in Port Jefferson.

Arnold Numismatic Company correspondence with Luther Brown Tuthill, postmarked October 7, 1901, franked with Daniel

Webster 10c Scott #283-A94 orange brown. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library. Estimate $150 -$200

In April 1902 it was reported that he was cheated out of $15.00 by Eduard Frossard, Jr. He was not alone since many well-known dealers

including the Chapman brothers were swindled out of large sums of money by "Little Eddie".

Fig. The famous philatelist Crawford Capen, Mount Vernon, New York, correspondence with Luther Brown Tuthill, postmarked June 2, 1904,

franked with Scott #307 A122, Daniel Webster, pale red brown, 10c. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library.

At the ANA Convention at the World's Fair St. Louis, Missouri, October 15, 1904, Tuthill was elected to the Board of Directors.

He was a long-time friend of William P. Titcomb (1839-1910) of Washington, D.C., considered by him to be the best authority in the country on

Confederate Treasury Notes. He published the death notice of Titcomb in Mehl’s Numismatic Monthly.

Bogert & Durbin, stamp dealers correspondence to Luther Brown Tuthill sent registered mail April 5, 1905, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sent

on uprated postal stationery with Martha Washington 8c violet-black Scott#306-A121 on Scott #U288-U68 brown. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library. Estimate $175-$200

He also ran paid advertisements in the The Numismatist Vol. XIX, No. 1, (1906) : 32. His ad read as follows: “We All Have Our Hobbies.