Walter Breen’s Annotated Copy of His Complete Encyclopedia

Breen, Walter. WALTER BREEN’S COMPLETE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF U.S. AND COLONIAL COINS. New York: FCI/Doubleday, 1988. 4to, original black cloth, gilt; jacket. xiv, 754 pages; illustrated. Inscribed by the author on front flyleaf under his signature: “First copy seen. From Doubleday 26 May 1988. First news of availability 6 May 1988.” Extensively annotated in various inks by the author, with dozens of photographs and other inserts laid in. A few annotations in another hand. Binding broken, most pages completely detached from the spine. A total of 145 pages are missing (see comments); another 11 pages are present in photocopy. Overall condition of the volume is poor, though housed in an attractive and well-crafted clamshell box (green-blue quarter morocco; spine with five raised bands, ruled and decorated in gilt; three black morocco spine labels lettered in gilt). Published in 1988, after four decades of serious numismatic study, Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins was generally regarded as the culmination of an impressive career. It followed upon a publication history of some 500 numismatic books, articles, columns and other publications, most of which had been groundbreaking at the time of their original publication and many of which remained the most thorough treatment of their subject. In addition to these signed publications, few of which brought their author any money, Breen had made a living writing numismatic auction catalogues, with his work for the New Netherlands Coin Company, Lester Merkin, and Pine Tree Auction Company having radically improved the level of scholarship in commercial numismatic publications. Hailed as probably the greatest single attempt to discuss the entirety of U.S. coinage, including colonial and private coinages, in a single volume, the Complete Encyclopedia was generally viewed as Breen’s Final Word on the subject of U.S. coins. Given that Breen died less than five years after it was published, it may come as a surprise to find that he had every expectation of publishing a revised edition of this monumental work. [online description truncated: see PDF or printed catalogue for full description]