World Banknote Auctions Offers Rare ABNC Presentation book

One of the most interesting and unique items in the sale is a presentation book of vignettes produced by the American Banknote Company, most likely sometime in the late 1860s or 1870s. The book, offered as lot 30004 in the sale, contains 74 individual vignettes, many which appear on banknotes from the United States, Canada and South America.  The book has the name Joseph Lesley on the front cover, and appears to have been presented to him. Intact books such as this are extremely rare, and we are aware of just a few intact books that have sold publicly in the past three decades. The book was carefully produced, with gilded edges, and while it does display some wear (as would be expected from a book of this age) it is completely intact and no individual plates appear to be missing.