Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 165 3 Dec 2022
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Rare Second Heath Pocket Edition Variant
Heath, Laban. HEATH'S GREATLY IMPROVED AND ENLARGED INFALLIBLE GOVERNMENT COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR, AT SIGHT... Boston and Washington: Heath, 1866. Second edition, third printing. 16mo, original blindstamped brown cloth; front cover lettered horizontally in gilt; white endpapers. 39, (1) pages; double-page plate of impressions of genuine and counterfeit fractional currency notes following the title; 17 finely engraved numbered plates of bank note design elements, with original tissue guards, Plates 2 and 5 serving as frontispieces, Plate 5 being printed in green ink, Plate 15 being a finely engraved folding Heath bank note facsimile, Plate 16 being a folding facsimile of a counterfeit $5 Bank of Orleans note taken from captured engraved plates, and Plate 17 incorrectly numbered 7 with a 1 added by hand in ink. Latest Recommendation dated January 15, 1867. Sprung signature; very good. Newman 2-P-h-3. A variant of the first Heath Detector to feature full illustrations derived from federal paper money. Rare: the only copy of this Newman number that we have handled before was Eric P. Newman's own copy, which was lacking one plate. This copy is complete. The edition is important. Heath writes in his introduction that "I am ... through the kindness of the Secretary of the Treasury, enabled in this new edition to give fac-simile cuts and dies from nearly all the Government issues, thus placing in the hands of all the means of detecting the most skilfully prepared counterfeits that can be executed. In issuing this work, I have retained all of the plates and cuts that were in my first edition save two, which have become obsolete, and have added about fifty [actually thirty-three, according to Eric P. Newman] of the most beautiful Government devices, including Ôvignettes,' Ôdies,' etc. These devices are now considered the most important safeguards, as the whole ingenuity of the most experienced rogues seems to be directed against the Government issues since the State bank-bills have mostly been withdrawn from circulation." Plate 17 is trimmed down from Plate 7 of the second Banking House edition for this issue, with the number updated to 17 by hand.
Estimate: 400 USD
Heath, Laban. HEATH'S GREATLY IMPROVED AND ENLARGED INFALLIBLE GOVERNMENT COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR, AT SIGHT... Boston and Washington: Heath, 1866. Second edition, third printing. 16mo, original blindstamped brown cloth; front cover lettered horizontally in gilt; white endpapers. 39, (1) pages; double-page plate of impressions of genuine and counterfeit fractional currency notes following the title; 17 finely engraved numbered plates of bank note design elements, with original tissue guards, Plates 2 and 5 serving as frontispieces, Plate 5 being printed in green ink, Plate 15 being a finely engraved folding Heath bank note facsimile, Plate 16 being a folding facsimile of a counterfeit $5 Bank of Orleans note taken from captured engraved plates, and Plate 17 incorrectly numbered 7 with a 1 added by hand in ink. Latest Recommendation dated January 15, 1867. Sprung signature; very good. Newman 2-P-h-3. A variant of the first Heath Detector to feature full illustrations derived from federal paper money. Rare: the only copy of this Newman number that we have handled before was Eric P. Newman's own copy, which was lacking one plate. This copy is complete. The edition is important. Heath writes in his introduction that "I am ... through the kindness of the Secretary of the Treasury, enabled in this new edition to give fac-simile cuts and dies from nearly all the Government issues, thus placing in the hands of all the means of detecting the most skilfully prepared counterfeits that can be executed. In issuing this work, I have retained all of the plates and cuts that were in my first edition save two, which have become obsolete, and have added about fifty [actually thirty-three, according to Eric P. Newman] of the most beautiful Government devices, including Ôvignettes,' Ôdies,' etc. These devices are now considered the most important safeguards, as the whole ingenuity of the most experienced rogues seems to be directed against the Government issues since the State bank-bills have mostly been withdrawn from circulation." Plate 17 is trimmed down from Plate 7 of the second Banking House edition for this issue, with the number updated to 17 by hand.
Estimate: 400 USD