The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 28, July 9, 2006, Article 16

MANUAL OF GOLD AND SILVER COINS OF ALL NATIONS

Adrián González Salinas writes: "I saw the following book on eBay:
This is the first time I've seen a numismatic book with inserted
gold samples. Do you know if there exists any other book such as
this?"   Full Story

[The buyer got a real bargain - from the illustrations it appears
to be a copy of the 1849 second edition of Jacob Eckfeldt and William
Du Bois' "A Manual of Gold and Silver Coins of All Nations Struck
Within the Past Century."  The spine is lettered "Supplement to 1850"
referring to pages 221-240 which include samples of California gold
behind mica windows pasted to page 235.

The Mormon plate was also added that year and is illustrated by the
seller.  Printed in metallic inks on a bold blue background, the
sheet is the earliest known use of embossed coin illustrations in
the U.S.  Below are some discussions of the book from earlier
E-Sylum issues:

ECKFELDT-DUBOIS WITH GOLD SAMPLES SOLD
esylum_v03n48a01.html

1850 ECKFELDT-DUBOIS AND THE STREETER SALE
esylum_v03n49a06.html

MORE ON THE 1850 ECKFELDT-DUBOIS
esylum_v03n50a06.html

I know of no other book to come with actual gold samples,
but there may be others outside the numismatic realm.  Do
our readers know of any?

I made an educated guess as to the identity of the buyer and wrote
to ask, politely, "Did you buy this, you lucky bastard?"   The buyer,
a knowledgeable bibliophile, answered affirmatively.  They did not
want their name used, but did forward the following for publication:

"I believe this is the Henry Clifford example of the 1849 "Mint
Manual" with the gold samples on p. 235, last sold in 1982, as it
is the only one seen that has marble boards and 3/4 leather.  The
seller did not offer anything about the background when asked,
except that it came from a "flea market" coin dealer (yeah, right...)

There've been four examples sold at auction since 1980.  The one
in the 2004 Ford I sale by George Kolbe, lot 432, realized $8,000
to a phone bidder.

There are numerous examples of the 1850 Eckfeldt/DuBois "New Varieties"
book with the gold samples on p45, as these were sold at the Mint
as souvenirs.  The last one sold, again through George Kolbe in part
3 of his 100th sale, lot 172, this past month, brought $3,200, again
to a phone bidder, who was sitting in a car using his cell phone after
the power went out at his house during a thunderstorm."   -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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