'Four copies are known, and they fall into two stages. The first stage is covered with writing, the ‘scribbling his observations’ referred to by Stukeley (recte Gale) (although the ‘scribbling’ is in fact by Haym, rather than Pembroke). The ‘scribbling’ represents a draft of a work by Haym on ancient coinage, using the Pembroke coins as illustrations. The two copies of the first stage are:
- British Museum, Department of Coins and Medals. Acquired in 2016, with the help of the Friends of the National Libraries, from Douglas Saville Numismatic Books, from the sale of the collection of Patricia Milne-Henderson (Sotheby, London, 8–18 July 2016, lot 47). The annotations in the book show that it came from Sydney Herbert, MP (1853: the younger son of the 11th Earl of Pembroke), Admiral John Walcott (d. 1868), Richard Gregory (d. 1839), and the 9th Earl of Pembroke (1733, and so presumably on the death in that year of his father, the 8th Earl). Bound into the copy are also two documents concerning the terms of the bequest of the collection by the 8th Earl;
- Wilton House, the property of the current Earl of Pembroke;
- Charles Sebag-Montefiore collection, London (Some hand-made corrections on eight plates in Part 3 in the Sebag-Montefiore copy, which have been engraved for the plates in the Kagan copy, show that the Sebag-Montefiore copy is in a slightly earlier state than the Kagan copy);
- Jonathan Kagan collection, New York, ex Harry Bass (Kolbe 75, 12 December 1998, lot 465), ex E. T. Newell.
(In the latter two copies (the second stage), most of the ‘scribbling’ has been erased from the plates and some coins were changed.)
Stukeley’s (recte Gale's) letter shows that the volume existed by 1732, and the terminus ante quem is 1729, the year of Haym’s death. As for the terminus post, Haym mentions the finding of the Brescello hoard (1716), and an unusual late Roman gold piece found at Birrens in c. 1723–5,5 but the latest reference which he makes is to a book which was published in 1727. Haym must have been working on the volume shortly before his death.
The plates are basically the same for all three stages of the book (the two proof stages and the printed version), so, if Stukeley was correct in saying that a hundred plates had been destroyed by Haym’s widow, i.e. after 1729, and that the 8th Earl had ‘a resolution of having the 100 plates wanting to be reingraved from their draughts in his hands,’ then the two proof copies would have to date to 1729–32. However, if so, it would seem very odd that the ‘two intire impressions of the whole’ have not survived. They are surely the two copies of the first stage, both of which seem likely to go back to the ownership of the 8th Earl. If that is correct, then the story of the lost plates must be incorrect, and we can date the first stage proofs to c. 1725.
As the ‘scribbling’ was still present in 1732, it seems probable that it was removed by Martin Folkes, who took responsibility for the collection and the book after the Earl’s death. That suggests a date for the second stage copies of c. 1735–40. This is confirmed by the absence from the proof copies of the coin of Allectus. It was included only in the 1746 printed book, and so gives a terminus ante for the proof copies, since it was acquired by the 9th Earl from the sale of Lord Harley in 1742.'
(Burnett 2020b, pp. 1578-9)
'An additional unbound copy of some of the Pembroke plates of the first stage of the proof appeared on Ebay in 2004, and seems to have included only the section on gold coins. Its present whereabouts are unknown.' (Burnett 2024, p. 6)
