Product Description

The old adage “everything old is new again” couldn’t apply more than to 17th century world coinage, especially in today’s strengthening coin market and steady precious metals arena. To take on this category of collectible coins, including tokens, patterns and special presentation coins, you’ll quickly discover more is better, and with the Standard Catalog of® World Coins you get more of what you need. More completely analyzed and updated pricing (280,000+ in all), more new listings for expanded sections and new additions, plus more auction-quality photos for easy and accurate identification of coins.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111445 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1488 pages

About the Author
Colin R. Bruce II is a long-time collector, specializing in Russian and Chinese coinage. In his nearly 35 years at Krause Publications he’s edited countless references, and is one of the earliest innovators of the Standard Catalog series. His blog, Court Jester, appears on www.numismaticnews.net. Tom Michael is a life-long coin collector, who is well known in the U.S. and world coin market. In addition to his work with the Standard Catalog of World Coins series, including management of a network of more than 200 experts worldwide, his blog, Big Ideas, Little World appears on www.numismaticnews.net.

Customer Reviews

A Must-Have!!!
This formidable work manages to be comprehensive despite the scope and ambiguities of the period covered. The listings of coins themselves are in step with very recent numismatic discoveries. Accompanying photographs to many of the coinages are clear and fairly representative. Now, the length with which German issues are treated may surprise some, but this may be due to availability of records. Also, the prices quoted for most coins in general seem very approximate at best (particulary for issues from within many Spanish dominions), but this is only to be expected of a publication that must remain usable over several inflationary years. As a reference in identifying coins from the world of the 17th century, this Standard Catalog will stand one in good stead indeed!

The Bible of 17th Coinage
At 1439 pages this book will dominate your Numismatic bookshelf. This comprehensive work is well organized and easy to use. I have come to rely on "KP's" "Standard Catalog" series to provide clear photos and detailed descriptions to 'catalog' and organize my collection. The market values provided have always aided me in acquiring decisions. I subscribe to the old adage "Buy the book before buying the coin". This volume is a must have for the serious collector of 17th material.

Reading for long winter nights - not without flaws
Krause sets the standard for catalog publication so if you are even moderately into the 17th century coins (and your interest exceeds some small area) you simply must have this volume. There is no other way you can access such a wealth of knowledge.
Having said that I have my reservations.
Many of the historical notes are at best sketchy and have little (if any) connection with the period covered by this specific catalog. And some notes prove that Krause can get it right (Transylvania for example).
The illustrations for Germany are more than impressive (although I am not happy with overlapping pictures...) but Italy for example doesn't deserve as much. This is not just a whim - at least a single picture per country would be good, it is often so that you have to recognize a coin by coat of arms when letters are worn out. No such chance with Albera, Arquata, Campi, Cisterna, Compiano etc etc.
Monetary systems are given for only a few countries. For some countries you have the value of a coin given in several ways (Poland) and monetary system is described in minute detail with names of coins of specific denominations (Russia). However, for quite many you are left guessing e.g. how much if Fyrk (Sweden). Is it less or more then 1/6 ore which follows?
The sequence in which coins are ordered seems to be quite haphazard. Editors of the Polish section mixed up "grosz" (1/30 of zloty) with "silver grosz" (1/4 of zloty) so that the sequence in the catalogue (values expressed in copper grosz) is as follows: 7 1/2, 15, 18, 3, 6, 30.
Such minor flaws which can be quite irritating are quite a few. It seems that the editors were in a hurry to get the volume on the market before Christmas and neglected to do last check-up. Unfortunately, this seems to be quite a regular thing about Krause coin catalogs.
In short if your interest in the 17th century is moderate - you have some coins issued in the period and you want to know if your investment brought profit over the years or you want to see what coins in the period looked like and who issued them as a part of your general interest in numismatics - this is your book. However, if you are seriously interested in any specific period or area, the value of this volume will be rather limited for you and it may not exceed current price estimates.