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, contemporary brown half morocco; spine with five raised bands, ruled and lettered in gilt; professionally rebacked with original spine laid on. (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. Corners and spine professionally repaired. Near fine. A first edition of what is arguably the best and certainly the most enduring work on American numismatics ever written. Sylvester Sage Crosby began gathering information for his magnum opus in the late 1860s. Nominally the head of a committee of six appointed by the New England Numismatic and Archæological Society to publish a work on early American coinage, he soon found himself alone in that pursuit. Not only was the research and composition of the work done almost entirely by Crosby, ultimately he also had to publish it. "It is truly the keystone to any library of American coinage." — Eric P. Newman. 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 Kolbe Sale 100, lot 26; ex Cardinal Collection Library.