JULIUS GUTTAG LATIN AMERICAN CATALOG

 

Julius Guttag Latin American Catalog

The 1929 publication of Catalogue of the Collection of Juilus Guttag: Comprising the Coinage of Mexico, Central America, South America and the West Indies described nearly 5,000 types of Latin American coins and effectively served as a forerunner of the well-known Standard Catalog of World Coins. Although serving as a catalog of the Guttag collection, the work is properly credited to Edgar H. Adams, of whom Guttag writes Mr. Adams has done all the work of preparing the catalogue…I cannot thank [him] sufficiently….

Among the many treasures of the American Numismatic Society Library is a five-volume set containing the individual pages of the Guttag Catalogue along with the pasteups of the original photographs. The quality of these images is generally much better than the halftone reproductions in the published version. This five-volume set has recently been scanned and is now accessible via Newman Portal.

The Guttag Latin American collection was sold in parts, with the first installment appearing in Kosoff's December 10, 1941 sale. Part X, apparently the last, was featured in the Kosoff October 24, 1942 sale. Kosoff references individual coins by the Guttag number, allowing for comparison with the published reference. Kosoff further sold the Guttag library (August 6, 1940), but these five manuscript volumes do not appear in that auction sale catalog.

Image: Sample page from the Adams manuscript of the Guttag Latin American catalog, nos. 1782-1786.

Link to Edgar H. Adams publications on Newman Portal, including the Guttag Catalogue manuscript volumes:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/104

Link to Abe Kosoff auction sale catalogs on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctioncompanydetail/511107

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