The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 25, June 19, 2005, Article 5

AHWASH COPY OF DIME BOOK SOLD

The following is republished with permission from the
Volume 1, Issue 4, Mid-June 2005 issue of The E-Gobrecht,
an electronic publication of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club
(LSCC). The item is titled "Kam Ahwash#39;s Dime Book
Personal Reference Copy in recent auction."

"Len Augsburger reports on the recent sale of this significant
numismatic treasure. In the E-Gobrecht Volume 1, Issue 2,
John McCloskey described his presentation copy of the Kam
Ahwash Encyclopedia of United States Liberty Seated Dimes
1837-1891. Kam published his book in 1977 and it represented
the first important work on seated dime varieties, being over
four hundred pages with large photographs on nearly every page.
John described his book as having a padded blue cover and
being numbered "002" in the lower right corner of the first page
of the text. John asked the readers whether the "001" copy,
presumably Ahwash's own, was known to anyone in the LSCC.

Remarkably, this very book seems to have recently appeared
in George F. Kolbe's sale of the Craig and Ruanne Smith
Numismatic Library, lot 62. This sale was recently conducted
on June 4, 2005, in conjunction with Kolbe's sale of the John J.
Ford library, part 2. Kolbe's description of lot 62 is as follows:

"Special leatherbound copy, impressed in gilt at the base of the
upper cover: "Kamal M. Ahwash/1977". Ex. Craig Smith.
The entire first edition comprised 500 copies, of which 100
were specially numbered and bound in leather-grained padded
blue cloth. This example at hand, presumably the author's own
special copy, is the only one known to us bound in leather and
may be unique. Ahwash graduated from the National
Conservatory of Music in Paris, performed for the Paris Opera
Company, and also on Broadway. He was founder and first
president of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club."

Estimated at $2,000, the volume sold to a floor bidder at $4,830,
a splendid tribute to the founder of the Liberty Seated Collector's
Club and the significance of his work on Liberty Seated dime
varieties."

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  Wayne Homren, Editor

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