One often thinks of the "Red book" as the first standard guide

1630Boston

But I found this at the NNP...from 1859
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The American Numismatic Manual
One often thinks of the "Red book" as the first standard guide, but Dickeson is the true eye opener. Here is the straw man, the first attempt at a comprehensive overview of American coinage. While the plates look like play money and technical errors abound (for example, the 1797 half dollar is unlisted), Dickeson represents a necessary stepping stone in American numismatic scholarship. An accumulative science by definition evolves, and Dickeson could have done much worse as he drew upon the few written sources along with personal contacts in the nascent numismatic community. The result was the first comprehensive, illustrated view of aboriginal, colonial, federal, pattern, and territorial coinage.
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you can 'read' the book here if interested https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/512402?page=241****

Namvet69

@1630Boston Wow! Excellent book. Just got started and Dickeson depth is impressive for the time. The excavation of burial mounds is amazing. Saved it for further reference. Thanks. Peace Roy

keyman64

Very cool

ricko

@1630Boston .... Thanks for the post and the link. Very interesting. I have picked up a few old coin reference publications. This would be a real prize. Cheers, RickO

1630Boston

Montroville Wilson Dickeson
Biography
Born in Philadelphia. Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He studied the American Indians. From 1837 to 1844 he worked in archaelogy in the Mississippi Valley. He dug over a thousand Indian mounds and collected 40,000 relics and artifacts. He donated this collection to the Philadelphia City Museum.

John J. Egan painted a panorama based on the sketches of Dickeson called Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley. The painting in tempora on muslin was 7.5 feet by 348 feet. It was used to illustrate Dickeson’s lectures.

Author of The American Numismatical Manual of the Currency or Money of the Aborigines, and Colonial, State, and United States Coins in 1859, 1860 and 1865. It was important at the time as the first comprehensive encyclopedia of United States coinage.

Dickeson sold his collection of 84 New Jersey coppers to Dr. Maris in 1876. His coins were included in 15 auctions, mostly in 1869 to 1871.

Dickeson produced copies of colonial coins including the Sommers Islands Shilling, Continental Currency, and others. He was the intermediary in the sale of dies used to produce the 1804 large cent restrikes. He used a postal die and a new reverse to produce fantasy pattern cents dated 1792.

He died at home in Philadelphia.

LanceNewmanOCC

nice pull @1630Boston

i THINK this may have been linked/discussed before for anyone that wants to search the name of the book. i gotta figure there aren't too many numis books for the 19th century, especially as comprehensive as this one appears to be.

the plates are a bit cartoon like but wow, anyone into numismatics and a little extra money to buy this book would have been well-served. would be interesting to see whom took the next step and what that book looked like!

anyone want a fun project could peruse the plates and info to see just what kinda sets could be put together JUST from the info in this book.

so i added the book as an attachment and here are some snippets of the plates. 22.78mb but it is kinda slow since it is pdf.