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First Printing of The Fantastic 1804 Dollar

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:450.00 USD
First Printing of The Fantastic 1804 Dollar
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Newman, Eric P., and Kenneth E. Bressett. THE FANTASTIC 1804 DOLLAR. First printing. Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman, 1962. 8vo, original brown textured cloth lettered in silver. 144 pages; illustrated. Fine. The very rare first printing, copies of which are more accurately bound page proofs issued in very small numbers immediately before the presses were fired up to print the entire run. The story behind this volume is the stuff of numismatic legend. Newman and Bressett's work had led them to the conclusion that the story of sets of 1834 and 1804 coins being issued for the Imam of Muscat and the King of Siam were myths -- there was no evidence of such gifts having been issued. The book was due to be printed during the 1962 ANA convention, at which the discovery of the King of Siam set (including the 1804 dollar) was announced by David Spink and James Risk. This announcement elicited a frantic application of editorial brakes, as Newman and Bressett had to accommodate this new information and revise their publication to take it into account. What turned out to be an outstanding numismatic work could have been issued with a major flaw had it been prepared in time to be on sale at the ANA. See the articles by Ken Bressett and Wayne Homren in the Summer 2001 issue of The Asylum. A rare and popular item.