"The market for numismatic literature is strong, and pickingup," says David Fanning. He and his partner George Kolbe operate Kolbe and Fanning, the premierdealership for rare and antiquarian numismatic books in the United States.

When I caught up with them, they were sitting in a room on the third floor, holding a lotviewing for their Saturday sale. On display were hundreds of books, including many greatrarities.

A collector of numismatic literature myself, I found many offerings to be of particularinterest.

But, I wondered: What makes the numismatic literature market in the United States tick?

"It's a three-part market for us," Fanning explained. "Ancients, which [are] always strong,Medieval and Modern Foreign, and U.S. The U.S. literature market is getting hot right now.

"Most of the lots here are U.S.," he continued, picking up an attractive volume bound in fullmorocco entitled The Early Coins of America by Sylvester S. Crosby.

"This first edition Crosby catalog has a complicated publication history. It has the original1873 title page and intro plus the 1875 title page. In addition, it has a rare Edward MarisWoodburytype Plate, Plate XI, which is found in perhaps one out of every 10 copies we see. Also,the piece has a handwritten key to the plate, written by Maris, and a handwritten review of theauction, also by Maris.

"We can't say for sure, but based on this and other evidence, we believe that this might havebeen Maris' personal copy. This catalog was bound, probably in the early 1980s by Alan Grace forArmand Champa. It sold in 1994 to a collector, who recently sold it to us."

"You don't really see the use of plates much anymore," I said, and the two partners tried tothink back to the last time that they had seen an auction house produce them with any regularity.Kolbe thought one might have to go back to old Superior catalogs to find ones of a more recentvintage.

Despite their disappearance, collectors still find the inclusion of plates in older catalogsbeneficial.

"It's about determining provenance," said Fanning.

"For an ancient coin collector, someone with a high-end coin-maybe a $25,000 or a $250,000ancient coin-numismatic plates are essential. [They're] essential because, for many of these greatrarities, you have to be able to show provenance, for protection. Otherwise, some government mightsay that you dug it up out of the ground last week and try to seize it from you. If you can showthat the exact coin was sold before and here's a plate of it from a 1904 catalog, then you are goodto go."

To read the complete article, see:
Whitman Baltimore Winter Expo 2014 Coin Show Report: Part 1(www.coinweek.com/coins/commemoratives/whitman-baltimore-winter-expo-2014-coin-show-report-part-1/)