1853 Depictions of Gold Rush Coins

Miller, Matthew T. [publisher]. THE AMERICAN BOOK OF COINS. SUPPLEMENTARY TO BICKNELL’S REPORTER & COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR. GIVEN GRATUITOUSLY TO ALL SUBSCRIBERS WHO ARE ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE TO THE WEEKLY REPORTER, SEMI-MONTHLY, OR MONTHLY DETECTOR, CONTAINING NEARLY ONE THOUSAND FAC-SIMILES OF THE GOLD AND SILVER COINS FOUND CIRCULATING IN THE UNITED STATES. Philadelphia, 1853. 8vo, self-covered as issued. 56 pages; numerous coin illustrations. Worn, but intact. Good or better. An early coin chart manual. Rare: the Newman Library did not have a copy. Of considerable interest, listing as it does hundreds of foreign gold and silver coins as well as privately produced gold coins, all of which were claimed to be found in circulation at the time. Coins depicted include the Mormon coinage and the Cincinnati Mining & Trading Company eagle. Tables at the end give the weight of each coin, contents in pure gold or silver, value recoined, and market value. Page 52 features a full-page ad for Bicknell’s Reporter, Counterfeit Detector and General Prices Current. The only other copy of this that we have encountered was sold by us 31 years ago.