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The Levick-Ford Copy of Strobridge’s Rare Catalogue of the Seavey Collection

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,200.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 USD
The Levick-Ford Copy of Strobridge’s Rare Catalogue of the Seavey Collection
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(Strobridge, William Harvey). A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE SEAVEY COLLECTION OF AMERICAN COINS, THE PROPERTY OF LORIN G. PARMELEE, OF BOSTON. Cambridge: University Press, 1873. 8vo, original black- and gilt-printed card covers. iv, 63, (1) pages; 1091 listings; 5 fine photographic plates of rare coins, with tissue guards. Spine very worn, with covers off and signatures partly loose. Covers faded and a bit chipped. Very good or so. Ex J.N.T. Levick, with his ink name stamp at the head of the title and on the backs of three plates. Assigned sale number fourteen in Adams’s bibliography though, as he freely admits, it does not qualify under the key criterion. Adams A+: “NE 1¢, 3¢, 6¢ 12¢ and stiver. Brasher doubloon. 1818 through (!) 1860 $5. RRR patterns such as 1861 $20.” Originally catalogued for dispersal at auction, this superb collection of colonials, patterns and United States gold and copper coins was purchased en bloc by Parmelee and the sale never took place. Though 150 copies were reportedly printed to record the collection for posterity, copies are very rare today. The catalogue has come to sale on a number of occasions in recent years but the same one or two copies account for the majority of these appearances. The Floyd B. Newell copy, for example, was originally sold in 1968 by Frank Katen and subsequently has passed through our hands on four occasions. To our knowledge, only half dozen or so different copies have been sold in the last two decades. Plate one depicts rare colonials, including a Brasher doubloon; the second plate illustrates choice large cents and half cents, including a 1795 Jefferson Head cent, a few rare gold coins, and rare United States silver coins featuring an “1804 dollar”; the third plate depicts choice early cents and half cents; plate four illustrates gem proofs; and the final plate depicts rare patterns. Ex John J. Ford, Jr. library (Kolbe Sale 93, lot 889).