In collaboration with Time-Life Books in 1979, American Bank Note Co. created a series of portfolios entitled "The Opening of the West". Ten large portfolio booklets (13" x 11") and an introduction booklet were printed, which were housed in a foil-embossed faux-leather box. The ten portfolios all had different themes, such as "Gold Rush Days", "The Iron Horse", and "Lumberjacks". Each came with six or seven intaglio prints, meant to be affixed on the pages using clear corner mounts. These included historical vignettes and reprints of obsolete banknotes, stock certificates, and ephemera.

Though the collection is of great interest to collectors of paper money, it is not widely known because Time-Life did not advertise it in the numismatic press. Each portfolio was sold for $15, and a new one was mailed each month to subscribers. This was relatively inexpensive when compared with some other ABNC products. Records indicate that ten thousand sets were printed, but only a small faction of these can still be found on the secondary market, which indicates they did not sell well.