The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 51, December 22, 2002, Article 6

DALTON & HAMER UPDATE

Regarding Dalton and Hamer, publisher Allan Davisson writes:
"I sent a note to dealers who handle the book a couple of
months ago advising them that the end of the stock is in sight
and that I would honor limited wholesale requests for multiple
copies at that time and that would be the end. I have kept
about 20 copies for us to sell ourselves. In our latest mailing,
the price is listed at $185. But I will honor the $150 plus $8
shipping for orders from E-Sylum readers until the end of
December. (Stacks' latest book list offers the book at $130
--a bargain all things considered....)

Printing the book was a very expensive proposition. I spent
five weeks in London doing research for the update section
as well as making some trips and spending substantial time
in the U.S. (Our business income was significantly reduced
for the year I worked on the project.)

When we printed, we used two separate original sets of
D&H, selecting the cleanest plates for the printer to copy.
This was still in the days when printers used film. The photos
were shot and stripped separately from the text to maximize
quality. (Some of the distinctions require magnification --
something one can do fairly well with this edition.). It was
an expensive process.

It has taken 12 years to sell just over 1000 copies. Another
printing is highly unlikely -- I have no plans to do it.
Presumably the plates are still available but, as Douglas
Saville at Spink could tell you, old plates are an "iffy"
proposition.

A final shameless plug: Dalton and Hamer has always
seemed to me one of the great books of the 20th century
in the field of numismatics, even if one is not particularly
interested in the series--it chronicles both a major social
transition (the Industrial Revolution) and a major change
in minting technology."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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