"To my Swell Friends of the Numismatic Gallery"
Newcomb, Howard R. UNITED STATES COPPER CENTS, 1816–1857. First edition. New York: Numismatic Review, 1944. 4to, original full red processed leather, gilt. 284 pages; 11 plates. Printed on regular paper. Annotated throughout in pencil. Spine and extremities very worn and rubbed; contents near fine; very good or so, overall. The deluxe, regular-paper, leatherbound version of the first edition of this important work. Only 125 deluxe copies of Newcomb's final book were bound in leather, 50 on regular paper (as here) and 75 on thick-paper. In both cases, the leather used was of inferior quality, and scuffs easily. The binding on this example is not at all well-preserved, but the provenance is interesting and the annotations beg for some research as they indicate coins in a major collection, much of it derived from that of Admiral Bitler. Completed four years earlier, Newcomb's work was not published until 1944 due to the war. One thousand copies were printed. It marked a great improvement over the pioneering work of Frank Andrews, nearly doubling the variety listings, and stood as the standard work for half a century. The result of many years of painstaking study, relatively few new varieties were discovered in the intervening years. Dr. Sheldon noted that "Newcomb's book doubtless achieves the highest pinnacle for numismatic completeness." Voted as one of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's "One Hundred Greatest Items of United States Numismatic Literature." Clain-Stefanelli 12326.