Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 160 22 May 2021
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Original 1875 Crosby, with 1873 Intro, 1874 Circular, &c.
Crosby, Sylvester S. THE EARLY COINS OF AMERICA; AND THE LAWS GOVERNING THEIR ISSUE. COMPRISING ALSO DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WASHINGTON PIECES, THE ANGLO-AMERICAN TOKENS, MANY PIECES OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN, OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES, AND THE FIRST PATTERNS OF THE UNITED STATES MINT. Boston: Published by the Author, 1875. 4to, later black quarter morocco with green cloth sides; spine with five raised bands, ruled, lettered and decorated in gilt; top page edges gilt; decorative endpapers. (2), v, (5), (11)–381, (1) pages; 110 wood engravings in the text; 2 folding heliotype manuscript facsimiles; 10 fine heliotype plates of coins and tokens with original tissue guards. Bound at the end are: the original 1873-dated title page and introduction; Crosby's October 1874 circular to subscribers stating that the volume had to be extended to an eleventh part; original paper covers for Parts I, II, and XI–XII, with an extra rear cover and a circular for the 1873 Banker's Almanac also included. Inscribed and signed by Isaac F. Wood, presenting the volume to the Union League Club in 1877; Wood's donation recorded in ink on the title. Professionally rebacked. Fore-edge untrimmed. Very good or better. An interesting copy of what is arguably the best and certainly the most enduring work on American numismatics ever written. Sylvester Sage Crosby began gathering information for his magnum opus in the late 1860s. Nominally the head of a committee of six appointed by the New England Numismatic and Archæological Society to publish a work on early American coinage, he soon found himself alone in that pursuit. Not only was the research and composition of the work done almost entirely by Crosby, ultimately he also had to publish it. "It is truly the keystone to any library of American coinage." - Eric P. Newman. This copy includes some of the materials that were only sent to original subscribers to the text, which was printed in installments and sent to subscribers in eleven separate installments; the untrimmed fore-edges also indicate that this copy was bound from the separate parts, and was not issued by Crosby in book form (as most were). State with overprinted coin numbers on Plates IV and V. Coin 15a on Plate VII hand-numbered in pencil, apparently as always. Without the handwritten correction, sometimes seen, to Miss Eliza Susan Quincy's name in the subscribers' list on page 381. Voted No. 2 on the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's "One Hundred Greatest Items of United States Numismatic Literature." Attinelli 105. Clain-Stefanelli 12115*. Davis 291. Grierson 218. Sigler 603. Ex Roger Persichilli Library.
Crosby, Sylvester S. THE EARLY COINS OF AMERICA; AND THE LAWS GOVERNING THEIR ISSUE. COMPRISING ALSO DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WASHINGTON PIECES, THE ANGLO-AMERICAN TOKENS, MANY PIECES OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN, OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES, AND THE FIRST PATTERNS OF THE UNITED STATES MINT. Boston: Published by the Author, 1875. 4to, later black quarter morocco with green cloth sides; spine with five raised bands, ruled, lettered and decorated in gilt; top page edges gilt; decorative endpapers. (2), v, (5), (11)–381, (1) pages; 110 wood engravings in the text; 2 folding heliotype manuscript facsimiles; 10 fine heliotype plates of coins and tokens with original tissue guards. Bound at the end are: the original 1873-dated title page and introduction; Crosby's October 1874 circular to subscribers stating that the volume had to be extended to an eleventh part; original paper covers for Parts I, II, and XI–XII, with an extra rear cover and a circular for the 1873 Banker's Almanac also included. Inscribed and signed by Isaac F. Wood, presenting the volume to the Union League Club in 1877; Wood's donation recorded in ink on the title. Professionally rebacked. Fore-edge untrimmed. Very good or better. An interesting copy of what is arguably the best and certainly the most enduring work on American numismatics ever written. Sylvester Sage Crosby began gathering information for his magnum opus in the late 1860s. Nominally the head of a committee of six appointed by the New England Numismatic and Archæological Society to publish a work on early American coinage, he soon found himself alone in that pursuit. Not only was the research and composition of the work done almost entirely by Crosby, ultimately he also had to publish it. "It is truly the keystone to any library of American coinage." - Eric P. Newman. This copy includes some of the materials that were only sent to original subscribers to the text, which was printed in installments and sent to subscribers in eleven separate installments; the untrimmed fore-edges also indicate that this copy was bound from the separate parts, and was not issued by Crosby in book form (as most were). State with overprinted coin numbers on Plates IV and V. Coin 15a on Plate VII hand-numbered in pencil, apparently as always. Without the handwritten correction, sometimes seen, to Miss Eliza Susan Quincy's name in the subscribers' list on page 381. Voted No. 2 on the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's "One Hundred Greatest Items of United States Numismatic Literature." Attinelli 105. Clain-Stefanelli 12115*. Davis 291. Grierson 218. Sigler 603. Ex Roger Persichilli Library.