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An extraordinary work which ranks as one of the monuments of nineteenth century American printing and graphic design, of great rarity. It is the only work of its type ever attempted, due to the great care and expense of the production, and also to the fact, alluded to in the introduction, that the Treasury Department was disinclined to authorize any further production from their security dies. The incredible engraved plates are supplemented by the chromolithographed and embossed plates of "Coins of All Nations," of which there are nine in number, not eight as called for in the list of illustrations. It should be noted that the descriptions of the 21 copies listed in OCLC mention only 30 plates, not 31 as this copy has. Although the book bears a copyright notice in the name of Nehemiah George Ordway, it has been demonstrated by numismatist Eric Newman in the 1971 ANA Anthology that the book is in fact the work of Laban Heath, and indeed Heath's name is in a somewhat altered and abridged edition of 1871. The publishing history of the book is curious. Heath obviously had great aspirations, ordering 5,000 and then a later 10,000 sets of the plates. But, through political intrigue and actual acts of destruction, very few sets were actually delivered, and it is not known for certain how many books were actually issued - it is known that the book is now a genuine rarity.