Walter Breen’s Annotated Crosby

Crosby, Sylvester S. THE EARLY COINS OF AMERICA; AND THE LAWS GOVERNING THEIR ISSUE. COMPRISING ALSO DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WASHINGTON PIECES, THE ANGLO-AMERICAN TOKENS, MANY PIECES OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN, OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES, AND THE FIRST PATTERNS OF THE UNITED STATES MINT. Boston: Published by the Author, 1875. 4to, original black half morocco, gilt; marbled endpapers. (2), v, (5), (11)–381, (1) pages; 110 wood engravings in the text; 2 folding heliotype manuscript facsimiles; 10 fine heliotype plates of coins and tokens. Annotated throughout by Walter Breen, with handwritten notes on approximately 60 pages and 4 plates, ranging from small comments to substantive additions; laid in are several pieces of notepaper with additional commentary including die charts. Binding in poor condition, with both boards detached and with spine covering detached and partly lacking; second facsimile plate, reproducing the oath administered to John Hull and Robert Saunderson on 11 June 1652, torn and mostly missing; a number of leaves detached from the binding; tissue guards largely missing. Would benefit from some restoration. Good. Housed in a custom-made blue linen clamshell box with printed spine label. Walter Breen’s annotated copy of the first edition. Breen’s comments are found primarily, but not exclusively in the chapters on state coppers, with the first half of the book featuring perhaps a quarter of the notations. The loose sheets of paper laid in feature notes on Oak Tree and Pine Tree silver, the Saint Patrick’s coinage, and Connecticut coppers. Laid in is a photocopy of the first page of a letter to John J. Ford, Jr., written by Breen and acknowledging receipt of this book, which he apparently purchased from Ford. The letter is undated, but was written by Breen while he was in Cushing Hospital, Framingham, Massachusetts, which was between October 8, 1948 and August 25, 1950. This volume was included in the material from the Breen Library purchased by Syd Martin in 2006. State with overprinted coin numbers on Plates IV and V. Coin 15a on Plate VII hand-numbered in pencil, apparently as always. Without the handwritten correction, sometimes seen, to Miss Eliza Susan Quincy’s name in the subscribers’ list on page 381. Voted No. 2 on the Numismatic Bibliomania Society’s “One Hundred Greatest Items of United States Numismatic Literature.” Attinelli 105. Clain-Stefanelli 12115*. Davis 291. Grierson 218. Sigler 603. Ex W. Victor Lehman Library; ex Walter Breen Library.