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SET OF NEW NETHERLANDS CATALOGUES

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,100.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 USD
SET OF NEW NETHERLANDS CATALOGUES
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New Netherlands Coin Company. AUCTION SALE CATALOGUES. NOS. 1–66. New York, 1940–76. A complete set of numbered sales. Also included are Adams Nos. 60b, 63a, 64a, 64b and 66a. Seventy-one catalogues total; varying formats, original printed wraps or card covers. A handful with prices realized. Generally near fine or better, with a few exceptions. Several dozen unused New Netherlands Coin Company envelopes included. Adams, Volume II, page 194: “In November, 1950, Charles Wormser hired John Ford, and perhaps the most important chapter of numismatic cataloguing was begun. Sometimes abrasive but always insightful, Ford ranks in a class with Sylvester Crosby, Lyman Low, David Proskey, and Wayte Raymond as one of the great numismatists this country has produced. His cataloguing features meticulous accuracy and conservative grading; his descriptions are full and informative, covering a range of material that spans the gamut of our hobby. Others have rivaled Ford’s penchant for detail, but none have better explored the by-ways of history and tradition for which numismatics are such a natural entry. As if one world-class numismatist were not enough, New Netherlands hired Walter Breen in 1952. Blessed with a restlessly inquiring mind and a prodigious memory, Breen added new dimensions to the firm’s research. His findings on die states, diagnostic features and the then condition census add another rich layer to the utility that New Netherlands’ catalogues will always possess… Sale 1 through 25 are either scarce or, in a few cases, rare… The New Netherlands catalogues represent something special in American numismatics. They demonstrate with eloquence that the business of dealing in coins can also embrace the functions of educating the collector and preserving the traditions of the hobby. In so doing, the members of the firm have set an example which, though rarely observed, will nonetheless act as a beacon to the profession in years to come.” By today’s standards, New Netherlands catalogues are visually unprepossessing. There are no color illustrations or glossy stock, little hyperbole, relatively few illustrations, and the format is unimpressive. Add modest estimates plus conservative assessments of condition and one might think the formulae a recipe for disaster. But you would, of course, be wrong. For New Netherlands catalogues, from the 1950’s on, possess a quality rarely present in catalogues of the time, and not consistently present even today: content. The firm excelled in selling Numismatica Americana—little junk but relatively few mainline rarities either. Large cents, colonials, medals and tokens, obsolete paper, pioneer gold—these were New Netherlands’ forte. The key to the firm’s success was not so much the quality of the material it handled but how it was presented. Each item was meticulously described, incorporating and often presenting for the first time the latest research. The illustrations, while relatively few, were of a quality rarely exceeded since the use of special editions featuring photographic illustrations faded into obscurity in the 1920s. To their lasting credit, New Netherlands helped to develop an entire generation of inquisitive and dedicated collectors and, even today, their catalogues remain an indispensable source of numismatic information often not available anywhere else.