Standard Catalog Of World Paper Money & Alternatives

I've had the "Standard Catalogs" in my library for years. I find their greatest value to be their comprehensive listing of what has been issued for each country and the sense of relative scarcity/rarity of the various notes. They are the perfect books/catalogs to browse when considering various collecting options.

Pricing can change quickly in today's market, however, so I've never taken the pricing info in the books as the final word - I use them only as a guide. Because of this, you might be able to get the info that you want by purchasing previous editions of the catalogs at used book stores or at coin shops for greatly reduced prices.

My advice/suggestion depends on what types of notes you plan to collect.

1. Notes from all eras? OR Just notes from 1961 to date?
2. Notes from multiple countries?
3. Notes that fit a theme (e.g., birds on notes) regardless of country or denomination?

If you intend on a wide-ranging collection that spans time frames and countries, acquiring the full set of books seems like a good investment. If you want to focus only on "modern" issues (from 1961 on), just purchase the latest edition of the "Modern Issues" catalog.

If you plan to focus on one or two countries (or some other small number), you might want to have a look at the following: http://banknotebook.contentshelf.com/shop

I initially took them up on their free samples offer, and then purchased the content for one country in which I was interested. I was pleased with the content provided.

Cheaper alternative? worldbanknotegallery.com

I also like The Banknotebook, and in my short experience, I found it to be actually more complete than the Standard Catalog (I am focusing on a few quite exotic countries, though, so this is just IMHO). You can buy the whole book for $99 (which is not very cheap, but you get 1 year subscription for all updates). However, they do sell separate chapters, so if you end up with focusing on a specific country, definitely revisit this source.

And, btw, their blog/site is amazing source of updates on the new banknotes, series, prefixes and signatures. They do not communicate new prices as much outside of the reviside Book editions, but as a source of new info it is very useful.