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Belden's Copy of Frossard's Monograph, with Letter

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:400.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 USD
Belden's Copy of Frossard's Monograph, with Letter
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Frossard, Ed. MONOGRAPH OF UNITED STATES CENTS AND HALF CENTS ISSUED BETWEEN THE YEARS 1793 AND 1857: TO WHICH IS ADDED A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL COINS, TOKENS, JETONS, MEDALETS, PATTERNS OF COINAGE AND WASHINGTON PIECES, GENERALLY CLASSIFIED UNDER THE HEAD OF COLONIAL COINS. A CONTRIBUTION TO THE NUMISMATIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Irvington: Published by the Author, 1879. 8vo, contemporary red half morocco, gilt; spine with four raised bands, ruled and lettered in gilt. 58, (2) pages; 9 heliotype plates, with eight [the full complement] featuring handwritten ligatures and/or numbers. Handwritten letter from Frossard to Bauman L. Belden dated Aug. 18, '85 bound in. Binding rubbed, especially at spine, but sound; stain to front cover. Very good with better interiors. An above-average copy of this classic work, with the full complement of eight of the nine plates numbered and/or with ligatures added by the author (Plate VIII features only obverses and is not seen with annotations). Frossard took the opportunity presented by his Jan. 3, 1879 sale of the George Merritt collection to compile this work, illustrating it with coins from Merritt's collection as well as from that of Lorin G. Parmelee. The story of the compilation of these plates is told in the September 1878 issue of Numisma, though it has been inaccurately stated through the years that the plates were initially created for use in the Merritt catalogue (they are the wrong size for an auction catalogue and depict both sides of most early varieties, using of necessity different coins--from both Merritt and Parmelee--to do so). [online description truncated: see PDF or printed catalogue for full description]