Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers (www.numislit.com) have announced the discovery of a rumored, but never reported, Geoffrey Charlton Adams auction catalogue from 1906 with two photographic plates.
The sale, of "The Dixie Land Collection of Coins and Medals," was Adams’s thirtieth and final sale, held on Nov. 13-14, 1906.
While a printed announcement of the sale mentioning a plated version of the catalogue has been known for many years, an actual example of the plated catalogue has never been offered publicly or reported to the numismatic community.
The plates are high-quality photographic plates, and are well-executed. The first depicts a variety of U.S. and colonial coins, including 1796 and 1797 half dollars, an 1879 Flowing Hair Stella, a Pine Tree shilling, a Rosa Americana twopence, a Chalmers shilling, rare Seated Liberty dollars and a Confederate cent. The second plate mostly depicts US. half cents and large cents, including key dates (1796 half cent with pole, two 1793 chain cents) and well-preserved early dates; a few early U.S. silver coins (1804 dime, etc.) are also included.
The catalogue itself resembles an ordinary G.C. Adams sale, with the usual pink paper covers stapled at the spine.
The catalogue will be offered at Kolbe & Fanning’s January 12, 2013 public auction sale at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, in conjunction with the New York International Numismatic Convention.
