Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 165 3 Dec 2022
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1870s American Publication on Ancient Coins
American Association of Numismatists. NUMISMATIC PILOT TO ANCIENT COINS AND THEIR USES. Volume I, Nos. 1-4 (La Grange, Kentucky, October 1876-June 1877), complete. Robert Morris, LL.D, Secretary, etc. Tabloid, 4 pages each [third issue published in large quarto format with four additional leaves, each printed on one side, being a capsule biography of a Roman emperor, laid in]; text illustrations of Greek and Roman coins. Some separating at folds. Generally very good. Bourne 1870-37. All four issues of this rare periodical issued by the earliest American numismatic organization devoted to the collecting of ancient coins. Founded in 1871, the American Association of Numismatists was spearheaded by Robert Morris, the author of several notable numismatic works. In the inaugural issue he wrote: "We are attempting to popularize ancient numismatics: First, by supplying the ancient coins themselves; Second, by affording the information necessary to their reading. Each of these things has been partly done by others. Various establishments in Philadelphia, New York, etc., sell coins, and more than one teacher of history gives dissertations upon the use of coins in history, to his class. But no society has set out to do both, and unless both are done neither singly is of much advantage... A single ancient coin well read; its place in the coin series understood; the time, place and circumstances under which it was minted clearly given, is a cabinet, a museum in itself!" Under the headline Authorities in Numismatics, Morris lists some two dozen numismatic volumes with accession numbers, noting that "the following are the standards upon which he chiefly relies in his ÔCoin Readings.' The numbers correspond with his private catalogue." Of his numismatic library he further notes: "We have a printed catalogue of more than one thousand publications, small and large." A correspondent writes: "When I visited you at La Grange and saw a pile of quarto volumes on your shelves, in French, Latin and German, and observed the subject of all--Numismatics--I wondered at the unfairness of modern authors. They steal and give no credit... they hooked their knowledge, and as you showed me, stole only the silver and left the gold behind. I saw in a single day there is more sound numismatic science in one volume of Patni (sic) than in a sheaf of such." All in all, a most interesting publication by this pioneering if little-known numismatic scholar and entrepreneur. This is only complete set we recall offering. Ex M. Bourne Library.
Estimate: 100 USD
American Association of Numismatists. NUMISMATIC PILOT TO ANCIENT COINS AND THEIR USES. Volume I, Nos. 1-4 (La Grange, Kentucky, October 1876-June 1877), complete. Robert Morris, LL.D, Secretary, etc. Tabloid, 4 pages each [third issue published in large quarto format with four additional leaves, each printed on one side, being a capsule biography of a Roman emperor, laid in]; text illustrations of Greek and Roman coins. Some separating at folds. Generally very good. Bourne 1870-37. All four issues of this rare periodical issued by the earliest American numismatic organization devoted to the collecting of ancient coins. Founded in 1871, the American Association of Numismatists was spearheaded by Robert Morris, the author of several notable numismatic works. In the inaugural issue he wrote: "We are attempting to popularize ancient numismatics: First, by supplying the ancient coins themselves; Second, by affording the information necessary to their reading. Each of these things has been partly done by others. Various establishments in Philadelphia, New York, etc., sell coins, and more than one teacher of history gives dissertations upon the use of coins in history, to his class. But no society has set out to do both, and unless both are done neither singly is of much advantage... A single ancient coin well read; its place in the coin series understood; the time, place and circumstances under which it was minted clearly given, is a cabinet, a museum in itself!" Under the headline Authorities in Numismatics, Morris lists some two dozen numismatic volumes with accession numbers, noting that "the following are the standards upon which he chiefly relies in his ÔCoin Readings.' The numbers correspond with his private catalogue." Of his numismatic library he further notes: "We have a printed catalogue of more than one thousand publications, small and large." A correspondent writes: "When I visited you at La Grange and saw a pile of quarto volumes on your shelves, in French, Latin and German, and observed the subject of all--Numismatics--I wondered at the unfairness of modern authors. They steal and give no credit... they hooked their knowledge, and as you showed me, stole only the silver and left the gold behind. I saw in a single day there is more sound numismatic science in one volume of Patni (sic) than in a sheaf of such." All in all, a most interesting publication by this pioneering if little-known numismatic scholar and entrepreneur. This is only complete set we recall offering. Ex M. Bourne Library.
Estimate: 100 USD