DAVIS MAIL BID SALE CLOSES FEBRUARY 18, 2017

We are offering the Michael Sullivan collection of works on counterfeiting and his nearly 300 lots of Chapman and Woodward catalogues in our next mail bid sale which has a closing date of February 18. Notable in the first category is the largest assemblage of "boodle" letters and associated ephemera seen at auction. From the introduction:

The proliferation of confidence men in latter part of 19th century, those offering bulk sales of counterfeit money to local agents, is astounding by today’s standards. Letters, typed or neatly handwritten and then duplicated by offset to give the look and feel of originals, were sent to individuals in rural areas, often struggling and gullible farmers or small merchants, offering the chance of a lifetime to get rich. Most writers admitted that their business was not completely legitimate, but that their "green goods" were virtually indistinguishable from the real items. ...

The collection consists of 11 distinct mailings with letters providing a description of the goods, instructions on how to schedule a meeting, secret codes, and often fake newspaper clippings with articles describing how counterfeiters are rarely convicted. The collection is being offered as a single lot.

Lot 607 (Heath) and Lot 625 (Ormsby)

Included in the consignment are some of the earliest references to counterfeit detectors, those published in newspapers by Jacob Perkins and by Gilbert & Dean. Also offered are a Fine copy of Ormsby on Bank Note Engraving, the rarest Heath (on Greenbacks), the rarest Hodges (on Genuine Bank Notes), and numerous other bank note lists and detectors.

The offering of 19th century catalogues is 95% complete for Woodward with many being the plated or thick paper examples, and a similar percentage for the Chapmans with those of Samuel Hudson being 100% complete.

Lot 42 (AJN) and Lot 32 (Numismatic Bookseller)

Also offered is a complete bound set of the American Journal of Numismatics, a long bound early run of The Numismatist, and a lengthy run of hardbound Kolbe catalogues with a uniquely matching bound run of the Numismatic Bookseller.

The catalogues has been distributed to those on our mailing list and may be viewed on our site Numisbook.com

Charles Davis
P.O. Box 1
Wenham, MA 01984

Tel: (978) 468 2933
Fax: (978) 468 7893

http://www.numisbook.com

For a gallery of lot images, see: http://www.charlesdavisnumismatics.com/gallery.php

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web