Has anyone purchased QDB's Obsolete Currency book?
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
I put in my order back in May, so that I am the first to get my copy when it arrives on the China slow boat. I can't wait for it to arrive. Here are some comments that QDB made about the book in his Dave's Notes, along with a full description from another part of their website:
"Whitman Publishing Company advises us that my new book, Obsolete Paper Money, is on its way from the printer in China. If you’ve ordered an example, yours will go in the mail in November—as soon as the first copies arrive here. If you haven’t ordered one, check the description elsewhere on our website. One dealer has placed an order for several hundred copies! Amazing, but true. And also gratifying. This book took many years to research and write, and I believe it will furnish a “you are there” experience in the world of paper money—how the bills of various banks were printed, distributed, and used, and information and advice on collecting them to day. More than just a few collectors and dealers believe that obsolete currency will be one of the next great waves of collecting enthusiasm. Catch the wave, as they say, and order a copy today. I guarantee you will be satisfied, or your money back."
**************************
Book Title
Obsolete Paper Money Issued by Banks in the United States 1782-1866
By Q. David Bowers
Description
To be issued by Whitman Publishing Company this autumn, this great new book by Dave Bowers will be approximately 600 pages in length, color illustrated throughout, on high quality paper, and hardbound. The author has been well known in numismatics for many years, with his name appearing on the cover of over 50 different books, including The 100 Greatest American Currency Notes (co-authored with David Sundman), and The Guide Book of United States Paper Money (with the Friedberg numbering system. He is an award-winning columnist, including for Coin World and Paper Money magazine. The book will include a foreword by Eric P. Newman, patriarch of paper money research and collecting.
The list price will be $69.95. In addition, at a later date, a limited number of leather bound copies will be produced for those who wish to have a very special volume for their library, these for $99.95. However, see our special pre-publication offer below.
The book is arranged in 21 chapters, each of which is extensively illustrated. The author begins with an overview of early American paper money for the first Massachusetts issue of December 10, 1690, down through the various notes of the 13 colonies, through the Continental Currency era, and into the period of state-chartered banking. Containing numismatic information such as the designs and availability of bank notes, the history of individual banks, and a rich background of the American scene, the author creates a “you are there” experience throughout. As a reader you can imagine that you are on the scene during the War of 1812, or swept up in the Panic of 1837, or marveling at the expansion of, at first, canals, then railroads, as banks proliferate—often illustrating their paper money with these motifs. You will be present, so to speak, as the Panic of 1857 begins in August of that year, then spreads nationwide—followed in due course by the Civil War, when many different types of currency were issued, and, gradually, state-chartered bank notes faded from the scene.
The contributors to the new book constitute a veritable Who’s Who in American Paper Money, a very impressive roster, without whom the book would not have been possible. Hundreds of illustrations of individual notes, vignettes, full sheets, printing plates and more will be shown. Never before have so much information and so many illustrations been combined in a single volume.
Bowers, who has been studying the subject and keeping notes for several decades, draws primarily upon original bank documents, contemporary newspapers, state bank commission reports, and other contemporary information, bringing to light many interesting, indeed remarkable facts never before presented in a numismatic publication. The reader goes from the early era of bank note engraving, through the inventions of Jacob Perkins, the talent of Abner Reed, and the work of other engravers of the early era, evolving into the 1820s when large vignette illustrations became popular. From then it is into the 1830s, when “wildcat” banking proliferated in Michigan and elsewhere, with currency-issuing banks springing up here and there like mushrooms after a rain, some of them existing only on paper.
The techniques of bank note engraving and reproduction are discussed in detail, drawing upon the work of Perkins, W.L. Ormsby, and other early individuals and partnerships. Counterfeits and counterfeiting form a special section of the book, with insights into such capers, some of which are remarkable in the telling. Then in the 1850s and 1860s comes the age of elegance—with beautiful vignettes, colored overprints, and more, issued by banks across America, which by that time had expanded to include bills as far west as California.
Following the Panic of 1857, banking times were difficult, and orders for paper money diminished. Bank note engravers experienced slow business. In March 1858, seven of the leading firms banded together to form the American Bank Note Company, incorporated in April, which immediately became dominant in the field. Brought into the merger were historical files, bank note plates, and other items from previous partnerships, dating back to the days of Perkins and others. In a way, the history of the American Bank Note Company, which occupies its own chapter, is also the history of bank note engraving in America. A handful of other firms did business outside of American Bank Note, including the talented and outspoken W.L. Ormsby and his New York Bank Note Company, the very successful National Bank Note Company (formed in 1859), and the Continental Bank Note Company (1863) among others. Eventually, all of these were merged into the American Bank Note Company.
Concluding the chapters are three special presentations. “Collecting and Enjoying Obsolete Bank Notes,” gives information on grading, the marketplace, trends and cycles, ways to collect bank notes, and how to be a smart buyer, a study that would make a nice little book all by itself! Then comes “Obsolete Bank Notes: A State by State Analysis,” in which the author goes through banks in different states that issued currency, telling of the features, history of distribution, legislation, and more, together with an overview of collecting, the last with the advice of well known dealers Tom Denly and Hugh Shull. Concluding the book is “Treasures of the American Bank Note Company Archives,” a color gallery of pictures of bank note plates, posters, vignettes, cylinder dies, and more preserved by the American Bank Note Company, some items dating back to the early 19th century. These treasures will be dispersed in the marketplace during the next several years. Shown is a preview of some of the more interesting items.
Mary Counts, President of Whitman Publishing Company, commented, “This is a one-volume university course on bank notes of the era. Nothing like it has ever been published before!”
The book is offered with a money back guarantee of satisfaction.
If you call now to order, you will receive a special prepublication price of $55 plus shipping. The expected publication date is this fall.
Ordering Information
$55.00
"Whitman Publishing Company advises us that my new book, Obsolete Paper Money, is on its way from the printer in China. If you’ve ordered an example, yours will go in the mail in November—as soon as the first copies arrive here. If you haven’t ordered one, check the description elsewhere on our website. One dealer has placed an order for several hundred copies! Amazing, but true. And also gratifying. This book took many years to research and write, and I believe it will furnish a “you are there” experience in the world of paper money—how the bills of various banks were printed, distributed, and used, and information and advice on collecting them to day. More than just a few collectors and dealers believe that obsolete currency will be one of the next great waves of collecting enthusiasm. Catch the wave, as they say, and order a copy today. I guarantee you will be satisfied, or your money back."
**************************
Book Title
Obsolete Paper Money Issued by Banks in the United States 1782-1866
By Q. David Bowers
Description
To be issued by Whitman Publishing Company this autumn, this great new book by Dave Bowers will be approximately 600 pages in length, color illustrated throughout, on high quality paper, and hardbound. The author has been well known in numismatics for many years, with his name appearing on the cover of over 50 different books, including The 100 Greatest American Currency Notes (co-authored with David Sundman), and The Guide Book of United States Paper Money (with the Friedberg numbering system. He is an award-winning columnist, including for Coin World and Paper Money magazine. The book will include a foreword by Eric P. Newman, patriarch of paper money research and collecting.
The list price will be $69.95. In addition, at a later date, a limited number of leather bound copies will be produced for those who wish to have a very special volume for their library, these for $99.95. However, see our special pre-publication offer below.
The book is arranged in 21 chapters, each of which is extensively illustrated. The author begins with an overview of early American paper money for the first Massachusetts issue of December 10, 1690, down through the various notes of the 13 colonies, through the Continental Currency era, and into the period of state-chartered banking. Containing numismatic information such as the designs and availability of bank notes, the history of individual banks, and a rich background of the American scene, the author creates a “you are there” experience throughout. As a reader you can imagine that you are on the scene during the War of 1812, or swept up in the Panic of 1837, or marveling at the expansion of, at first, canals, then railroads, as banks proliferate—often illustrating their paper money with these motifs. You will be present, so to speak, as the Panic of 1857 begins in August of that year, then spreads nationwide—followed in due course by the Civil War, when many different types of currency were issued, and, gradually, state-chartered bank notes faded from the scene.
The contributors to the new book constitute a veritable Who’s Who in American Paper Money, a very impressive roster, without whom the book would not have been possible. Hundreds of illustrations of individual notes, vignettes, full sheets, printing plates and more will be shown. Never before have so much information and so many illustrations been combined in a single volume.
Bowers, who has been studying the subject and keeping notes for several decades, draws primarily upon original bank documents, contemporary newspapers, state bank commission reports, and other contemporary information, bringing to light many interesting, indeed remarkable facts never before presented in a numismatic publication. The reader goes from the early era of bank note engraving, through the inventions of Jacob Perkins, the talent of Abner Reed, and the work of other engravers of the early era, evolving into the 1820s when large vignette illustrations became popular. From then it is into the 1830s, when “wildcat” banking proliferated in Michigan and elsewhere, with currency-issuing banks springing up here and there like mushrooms after a rain, some of them existing only on paper.
The techniques of bank note engraving and reproduction are discussed in detail, drawing upon the work of Perkins, W.L. Ormsby, and other early individuals and partnerships. Counterfeits and counterfeiting form a special section of the book, with insights into such capers, some of which are remarkable in the telling. Then in the 1850s and 1860s comes the age of elegance—with beautiful vignettes, colored overprints, and more, issued by banks across America, which by that time had expanded to include bills as far west as California.
Following the Panic of 1857, banking times were difficult, and orders for paper money diminished. Bank note engravers experienced slow business. In March 1858, seven of the leading firms banded together to form the American Bank Note Company, incorporated in April, which immediately became dominant in the field. Brought into the merger were historical files, bank note plates, and other items from previous partnerships, dating back to the days of Perkins and others. In a way, the history of the American Bank Note Company, which occupies its own chapter, is also the history of bank note engraving in America. A handful of other firms did business outside of American Bank Note, including the talented and outspoken W.L. Ormsby and his New York Bank Note Company, the very successful National Bank Note Company (formed in 1859), and the Continental Bank Note Company (1863) among others. Eventually, all of these were merged into the American Bank Note Company.
Concluding the chapters are three special presentations. “Collecting and Enjoying Obsolete Bank Notes,” gives information on grading, the marketplace, trends and cycles, ways to collect bank notes, and how to be a smart buyer, a study that would make a nice little book all by itself! Then comes “Obsolete Bank Notes: A State by State Analysis,” in which the author goes through banks in different states that issued currency, telling of the features, history of distribution, legislation, and more, together with an overview of collecting, the last with the advice of well known dealers Tom Denly and Hugh Shull. Concluding the book is “Treasures of the American Bank Note Company Archives,” a color gallery of pictures of bank note plates, posters, vignettes, cylinder dies, and more preserved by the American Bank Note Company, some items dating back to the early 19th century. These treasures will be dispersed in the marketplace during the next several years. Shown is a preview of some of the more interesting items.
Mary Counts, President of Whitman Publishing Company, commented, “This is a one-volume university course on bank notes of the era. Nothing like it has ever been published before!”
The book is offered with a money back guarantee of satisfaction.
If you call now to order, you will receive a special prepublication price of $55 plus shipping. The expected publication date is this fall.
Ordering Information
$55.00
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
0
Comments
Longacre, I assume your advertising blurb comes from ANR or Whitman, and I would like to support them but for 7 dollars more than they want for the hardbound I can get the leatherbound version from Amazon. Makes it hard not to go with Amazon. Especially if you have to pay for shipping with your way.