This was intended as an auction catalog of the Seavey collection, which was purchased en bloc by Lorin G. Parmelee prior to a public sale. The cataloger (W. H. Strobridge) felt that publication of the catalog was still useful for posterity, and so this volume was issued in 1873. See also the Parmlee/Seavey auction sale catalog of June 1873 (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=511772&AuctionId=512114).

Joel Orosz discussed this work in the Numismatic Bookie column in Coin World, August 19, 2019.