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The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 54, December 21, 2003, Article 6 PRESIDENT PIERCE'S ORMSBY FOR SALE David Gladfelter wrote: "The deluxe Franklin Pierce copy of Ormsby is in the Heritage/Currency Auctions of America FUN sale next month. It has a realistic $15K-up estimate. There is also a nice run of Heath detectors. These are all listed in the back of the catalog under "miscellaneous". Go to http://www.heritagecoin.com [See lot 16959. I've taken the liberty of publishing the lot description below. If memory serves, this copy was discovered in New England by Bob Wester. Can anyone confirm that? Where has it been in the meantime? The book's pedigree is alluded to in the catalog description, but not published. The description begins with the text of a letter which accompanies the book. -Editor] New York Jan 31 1853 Dear Sir: Allow me to present you with a copy of my late work on Bank Note Engraving which will explain the cause of the vast amount of counterfeiting in this country. This is the first publication on this subject, and it is daily growing more and more important to every person in the community. I beg permission to call on you, at some future time, when my plans for constructing bank notes to prevent forgery are mature, that I may have an opportunity of convincing you of the utter insecurity of our present paper money, and the necessity of Legislative action on the subject. At present I will only ask your attention to the important requisites of a Bank Note which constitute its value - there are but two - first that the Bank be good - second that the note be genuine. The people loose (sic) more by counterfeiting money than by broken banks. It is therefore of as much importance to the poor people to have the note genuine as it is to have the Bank good. It is my object and aim to instruct the people in the art of Bank Note Engraving to the end that our General Banking Laws may be amended, so that they should define no less particularly the manner in which a note must be engraved than the manner in which the bank must be organized. Many of the counterfeit bills in circulation are absolutely the work of the original engravers. Counterfeiters obtained their work in spite of their utmost efforts to prevent it. This is all owing to the patch work system of constructing the note and the use of dies in the engraving of plates. My plan is to have a Bank Note one design or picture, with all the lettering interwoven in it. The whole to be engraved on the plate by the hand of the artist with out the use of dies. A counterfeiter then would be obliged to do the work himself in stead of employing others who do not know for what purpose their work is to be used. On turning to page 52 you will learn how a counterfeit plate of a five hundred dollar Treasury note was engraved for a counterfeiter by the very engraver who executed the original plates! Such things have frequently occurred - the matter is seriously alarming to every business man. Any encouragement which I may receive from you will be gracefully received by Your most obedient humble Sevt, W. L. Ormsby The book itself is inscribed on the blank flyleaf, "Presented to Gen. Frank. Pierce by his humble Sevt. The author W.L. Ormsby." Elaborately gold leafed on both front and back covers, the 100+ page master work measures thirteen-and-a-half inches by ten-and-a-half inches and contains a large number of beautifully detailed, superbly engraved plates, including a tri-color red, blue and brown frontispiece. The book is in flawless, as-issued condition, fully tight in its binding with only a few, very minor scuffs at the edges of the cover. Included with the book are some items of correspondence between previous owners, one of which discusses a possible $16,000 valuation in 1991 and another which presents a history of the ownership of the book since 1853. We auctioned this book in May of 1998 and at that time it realized just over $9,000. This book would be the crowing glory in any numismatic library or the ultimate association item in a collection of Obsolete Bank Notes. Est.15,000-up. Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum | |
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