Australasian Coin And Banknote Magazine

I subscribe through my local coin club; it's cheaper than either the newsagent or direct subscription price and the club still makes a profit from the sale. Only drawback is, the magazines usually get delivered to the club just after the monthly meeting, so I usually get my copy a month late.

To answer your questions:



I think the best answer here is "yes". There are certainly plenty of good "meaty" articles. There's also a large focus on the latest issues from the RAM and Perth (both "Australian" coins and those issued in the names of other countries), both of which are given a monthly column to plug their stuff.



More than half of it is about Australian material, or items tangentially related to Australia. American material is usually very scarce, typically only news on the latest issues from there - I suppose their reasoning is that anyone interested in American coins would import an American coin magazine. Ancients, mediaeval, and exonumia (tokens, medals etc) also get occasional representation. As a world coin collector, personally, I'd like to see more "third world / island state news" in this magazine.



Not a great deal, I'd have to say. Though I'm not quite sure what you mean by "pre-decimal bullion".



Yes. There used to be a semi-regular feature where Note Printing Australia was given space for press releases, similar to the RAM and Perth, but I haven't seen it recently. There are a couple of regular contributors for banknote articles, but more often than not their articles are about foreign notes.

To address some issues not raised directly in your questions:

Despite the word "Australasian" in its name, there's virtually no articles on New Zealand or PNG material. They have one semi-regular NZ contributor but he seems to write about non-NZ stuff more often than not. I don't know if the Magazine is actually intended for sale in NZ, but if it did and I was an NZ collector, I'd think it was a waste of money.

Errors and varieties, both decimal and predecimal, are reasonably well covered, but their main error contributor is somewhat unorthodox in some of his interpretations on what exactly makes a "variety".

would it be suited to a younger person to read or is it a bit heavy for kids?

I buy CAB every month. Although 90% of what is covered isn't in my particular field of collecting I still get an enjoyable read from most of the articles and expand my knowledge of other collecting areas.
When you do find an article in your particular collecting interest it is heavenly.
Some US coin coverage (if that's your interest) but I wouldn't subscribe if that is your main interest.
Heaps of articles on decimal notes such as Mick V. R. annual surveys of circulating notes. Lots on NCLT new releases. Reasonable coverage of pre decimals (including regular articles on varieties by Ian and Fred).
Something for everyone who has an interest in Australian numismatics.

Give it a little time and coins will be put aside for a while.

Although something that should be remembered is that if people see a CAB sticking out of your letter box each month they can be pretty sure that you have a coin/note collection inside.

Its for that reason that I will always buy my copy from the newsagent

Every collector should at least get this mag now and again.Just to see what the dealers value their coins at and not think that ebay or other online sites are "THE MARKET".
Most of the articles don't interest me but knowledge is valuable. The only problem with knowledge is that there is always someone who disagrees.

I find it hilarious when there is an auction result for something or other in the news and then there's a dealer ad with the same coin at a substantial markup.