James Cummins Bookseller

Philadelphia: 1850.

Price: $7,500.00

About the item

60, [1] pp. plus plate of gold coinage and with mounted sample of gold from California mines. Frontispiece. 1 vols. 8vo. Original Sample of California Gold. Original printed boards, gilt-lettered cover with illustrations of gold coins, expertly rebacked in matching paper, a.e.g. Covers slightly rubbed. Very good. In a cloth clamshell case, leather label. Cowan I, p.76; Cowan II, p.191; Eberstadt 114:139; Holliday 335; Howell 50:74; Kurutz 217a; Sloan, Gold Rush 55; Streeter 2629; Wheat Gold Rush, Books, 67.

Item #100093

Included as illustrative material is a sample of genuine gold from the California mines, as well as an inserted leaf illustrating California and Mormon coins, in gilt. The authors were the official assayers for the Philadelphia Mint at the time of this work's publication, and the book was intended as a guide for those unfamiliar with recent advances in coinage and assaying. The text includes much data regarding the recent strikes in California, and devotes an entire chapter to the analysis of the quality of ore coming from California. The sample is included so that the novice can discriminate between alloyed and unalloyed gold. There is also a discussion of the coinage of various countries of the world, including the TONG TSIEN of China, a "trashy coin...extremely convenient for alms-giving, a single piece being the usual quietus for a beggar." "...An extraordinary and colorful souvenir of the Gold Rush" - Wheat

This copy a variant, with only one sample of gold (of the flake variety) mounted to p. 45 as opposed to the usual two.