The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 25, June 20, 2003, Article 8

FANTASTIC 1804 DOLLAR BOOK VARIANT

  On the COINS mailing list, Peter Gaspar (our first E-Sylum
  subscriber) wrote:  "I was asked to post to the whole list
  the explanation for my comment at the end of a posting on
  the 1804 dollar:  "PS: There is a version of the Newman-
  Bressett book that is as rare, if not as costly, as the 1804
  silver dollar."

  "Production of the 1962 book was beginning just as David
  Spink made his sensational presentation at that year's Detroit
  ANA convention revealing the existence of the previously
  unknown King of Siam presentation set containing what is
  these days called an "original" striking of the 1804 dollar.
  That revelation required a quick rewriting of part of the book,
  and almost all of the copies already printed were destroyed.
  Messrs. Newman and Bressett arranged for a few (perhaps
  a dozen total) of the page proofs of the original edition to be
  bound, and these look from the outside just like the normally
  issued book. Cognoscenti still examine copies of the book
  hoping to find a first version.  I did a census of surviving
  examples of the first version last year, but regrettably have
  been too swamped to properly collate and publish the data.
  That book is rare, one of the rarest American numismatic
  books of the 20th century, but of course it commands only a
  modest price on the occasions on which a first version copy
  comes up for sale.  Hence the teaser I included at the end of
  my brief note."

  [I believe it was while visiting the library of P. Scott Rubin
   that I first learned of the existence of this rare variant of the
  Fantastic 1804 Dollar book.  I later bought my own copy at
  auction.  I wrote an article for The Asylum about it a year or
  two ago.  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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