AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF AMERICAN COINAGE.
Albany: Joel Munsell, 1858. First edition. 8vo, contemporary black half morocco, gilt, with mottled sides; spine with five raised bands, ruled, lettered and paneled in gilt; marbled endpapers; top page edges gilt; silk marker; original printed front paper cover bound at rear. viii, 151, (1) pages; 5 plates of coins, well-engraved and printed by J.E. Gavit of Albany, New York, the first two in two colors. Binding professionally restored, with spine rebacked and corners mended; marginal repair to rear blank; David Proskey’s distinctive DP monogram in pencil on opening blank. Fine. Item #7807
A fine example of this classic work of American numismatic literature, with an outstanding provenance. Hickcox’s Historical Account is the first substantial work ever written on American coins. Only 200 copies were issued. The author writes in the preface: “The design of this work is to give an account of the legally authorized coinage of the United States of America during the periods of their colonial history and their existence as a united republic. Nothing as comprehensive has heretofore been attempted, nor is there any separate publication on either our colonial or early federal coinage. The materials have been collected by consulting early periodicals, congressional and legislative documents and other works, and through an extensive correspondence with gentlemen in other states. In the concluding chapter is given a catalogue of pieces which have been neither legally issued, nor can they, with one or two exceptions, be considered as tradesmen’s tokens, but were the inventions of individuals, sometimes proposed as specimens or patterns of coinage for the newly formed republic... The modern coinage of the United States having been quite fully exhibited in the valuable treatise by Messrs. Eckfeldt and Du Bois, it has been deemed expedient not to repeat the engravings contained in that work.” Unfortunately for Hickcox, his pioneering work was almost immediately overshadowed by Montroville Wilson Dickeson’s American Numismatical Manual. Though smaller in size and scope, Hickcox’s work is richer in historical detail and more elegant in style. It will always remain a landmark in American numismatic literature. Clain-Stefanelli 11884. Davis 510. Sigler 1223. Ex David U. Proskey Library, with his distinctive DP monogram in pencil; ex George F. Kolbe Library.
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