I am going to bring my M.A. Brown sale and plates to the ANA for NBS display. This was an SH & H Chapman sale on April 16-17, 1897 and was originally intended to be a large format plated catalog with four photographic plates of large cents. At the time, the Treasury Department was somewhat concerned about any U.S. coins or currencies being reproduced by a photographic process. Treasury agents gained information about the pending Chapman M.A. Brown Sale with photographic plates (could it be that some competitor was upset?) and they seized the original glass negatives and destroyed them before the catalogue could be completed.

However, two sets of proof prints were produced before the glass negatives were taken. One of the sets was cut horizontally through the center so it could fit into the smaller size catalogue. The other set survived intact in its original full-size format. I can bring both sets of plates along with the firm's bid book containing prices and names. I also have a second copy with prices and names along with interesting notations.

The Chapmans produced 46 total regular plated catalogs. The M.A. Brown sale plates are unique. Without U. S. Treasury glass negatives confiscation, the number of Chapman plated sales would have increased by one. Perhaps more plated catalogs might have been produced as well without the expectation of possible seizures of photographic plate negatives. In any event, the Chapman plated catalogs are considered a high point of late 19th and early 20th century plated coin auction catalogs produced in the United States, and a high point of any numismatic literature collection.