RIDDELL'S NOTES ON THE NEW ORLEANS MINT

Extremely Rare Illustrated 1847 Second Edition of Riddell's Notes on the New Orleans Mint

382 Riddell, J.L. THE BRANCH MINT AT NEW ORLEANS, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCESS OF COINAGE AND FAC-SIMILE IMPRESSIONS OF THE COINS MANUFACTURED. No publisher imprint. Second edition, 1847. 8vo, original plain yellow paper covers. 10 pages; illustrations of both sides of eight coins (see comments). Foxed, particularly the blank covers; folded and somewhat wrinkled. Good. $2500

Only the second copy to have come to market of which we are aware. John Leonard Riddell (1807–1865) was Melter and Refiner at the New Orleans Mint from 1838 to 1849, and the author of A Monograph of the Silver Dollar, Good and Bad (1845), a classic work on the American dollar that remains useful to scholars today. Later in life, Riddell served as the New Orleans Postmaster during the pivotal period of secession and the outbreak of the Civil War. He also published two editions of his account of operations at the New Orleans Mint.

The first of these publications appeared in 1845, with the printing of The Mint at New Orleans with an Account of the Process of Coinage. The copy of this that appeared in the Eric P. Newman Library sale in 2018 is the only copy known to us in private hands. Part I of that edition was reprinted in the New Orleans Annual and Commercial Register of 1846, published by E.A. Michel & Co.; the only copy of that which we have handled appeared in the first David Fanning auction (subsequently renumbered Sale 113 of the Kolbe & Fanning series) as lot 238.

A second edition appeared in 1847, with the first printing being unillustrated: that was published in De Bow's Commercial Review of the South and West (Volume III, Number 6 [July 1847]); the only copy of that printing that we have handled appeared in our Sale 155 (lot 380), where it brought $5000 hammer.

 

The present lot is a second printing of the second edition, referring to the De Bow's printing on page 8 and supplementing it with updated mintage information andmost importantlyillustrations of the obverse and reverse of five silver and three gold New Orleans coins. The illustrations resemble those used in the author's 1845 silver dollar monograph. There, Riddell described them as being produced by metal types adapted for printing, indirectly from the coins themselves, which, if they do not always make a handsome print, give a perfectly correct, and I think, satisfactory representation. The resulting illustrations appear crude at first glance, but on closer examination are discovered to be remarkably accurate: much more so than if they had been printed from woodcuts or through lithography. These illustrations, together with the updated information provided within, make this printing the most significant of Riddell's publications on the New Orleans Mint.

An example of this rarity was sold in 2008 in a Bloomsbury (New York) auction; to the best of our knowledge, no other copy has been publicly offered since. Ex Maidstone Museum and Public Library, with their blind-stamp on the opening page.

To read the complete lot description, see:
Extremely Rare Illustrated 1847 Second Edition of Riddell's Notes on the New Orleans Mint (https://bid.numislit.com/lots/view/1-6O6VW1/extremely-rare-illustrated-1847-second-edition-of-riddells-notes-on-the-new-orleans-mint)

To read the Catalogue PDF, see:
https://www.numislit.com/images/upload/kolbefanningsale165.pdf

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
KOLBE & FANNING AUCTION SALE 165 ANNOUNCED (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n46a02.html)
KOLBE & FANNING AUCTION SALE 165 HIGHLIGHTS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n47a04.html)

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