["Index of engravers' initials, etc.": vol. II, p. [746]-748,"Index of inscriptions": vol. II, p. [749]-833,"Biographical notices of engravers, artists, etc., with references to their works": vol. II, p. [719]-745,"Works referred to for the illustrations of medals": vol. I, p. [xxiv]-xxix]
The constant flow of visitors to the United States Mint, combined with old fashioned American capitalism, ensured that some book of this kind would eventually be created. Naturally it includes an overview of the Mint Cabinet, a tourist magnet in former times, along with history of the Mint operations and coinage. The best selling numismatic book of its era, Evans claimed to have sold over one hundred thousand copies, many distributed along with George Soley medalets struck on the first steam coinage press, and today the breadth of variants is still not fully catalogued. George Kolbe has come the closest, discussing Frank Van Zandt's collection of 158 copies of Evans, in his 104th sale of November, 2007. Though hardly a paradigm of scholarship, Evans remains a significant text as the most widely known American numismatic work at the close of the nineteenth century. Voted #58 of the top one hundred items of numismatic literature in a survey by the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Americans of the present era miss the veneration accorded to the Father of Our Country in former times. So numerous were these tributes that eventually order was in order, and Baker accepted the challenge, issuing not only this catalog of over six hundred Washington medals, but also three associated works dedicated to biographies, engraved portraits, and character sketches of the first President. Washingtonia was an early numismatic craze, fueled by the creation of the Washington Cabinet of medals inaugurated by the U.S. Mint in 1860. The Cabinet was noteworthy enough to inspire its own medal, Baker-326, which combined an adaptation of Houdon?s celebrated Washington bust with a rendering of the Cabinet display. America being America, public adulation piqued commercial interest, which did not shy from occassionally muling Washington with lesser subjects, ?a perversion of true medallic purposes? in Baker?s opinion, whose own work has endured and remains highly regarded. Voted #49 of the top one hundred numismatic literature items by the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
The 1870s and 1880s represented the heydey of the dealer "house organ," with a trio of prolific authors (Mason, Frossard, and Proskey here) informing the public on various aspects of numismatics. Competing with other periodicals, the Coin Collector's Journal generally stood above the fray, avoiding the politics of personality and focusing on purely numismatic matters. The Journal boasts important technical content, such as the Robert Coulton Davis series on U.S. patterns beginning in 1885. A die variety study of U.S. large cents appears in serial form beginning in 1887. Note, the Coin Collector's Journal was edited by Edouard Frossard during its first year, and then by David Proskey for the remainder of the series.
