This book is considered the first publication from a daguerreotype in the United States. A remarkable example of this little used process and of major importance in the history of photography and photomechanical printing in the United States. Joseph Saxton not only produced the oldest extant daguerreotype now in the United States, but also invented the modification to the ruling machine used for this publication. Saxton’s ruling machine created an engraving in the line using a pantograph with the tracing point moving over an image or pattern in relief. The ruling machine would produce rows of even lines but, as modified, would produce wavy lines based on the degree of movement of the tracing needle across the relief surface

Jacob R. Eckfedlt & William E DuBois A Manual of Gold and Silver Coins of All Nations, Struck within the Past Century. Showing their History, Legal Basis and their Actual Weight, Fineness, and Value, Chiefly from Original and Recent Assays. With which are incorporated Treatises on Bullion and Plate, Counterfeit Coins, Specific Gravity of Precious Metals, Etc. with Recent Statistics of the Production and Coinage of Gold and Silver in the World, and Sundry Useful Tables. Illustrated by Numerous Engravings of Coins, Executed by the Medal-ruling Machine, and under the Direction of Joseph Saxton of the United States Mint. Philadelphia: Assay Office of the Mint, 1842