Catalogues Of British Coins

Mostly, I go online, and I find Tony CLAYTON's site very helpful.

I have an old book:
Thorburn's "Coins of GB & I", 4th edition, 1905,
which I refer to, because it is available to me. Some of the adverts are great.

Thanks Sap, could you please give me the precise title for Spink, so that I can search for a copy (I'll try on Amazon first, often the cheapest source for books).

Thanks,

Bill.

The full title is "Coins of England and the United Kingdom" published by Spink. They released the 2011 (46th) edition not long ago. It's currently the second book down on the Spink books page, £25 direct from Spink, shipping extra. New or secondhand copies of older editions shouldn't be too hard to find on Amazon or elsewhere. I would imagine that most coin dealers in Britain probably would also stock it.

In the 46th edition, the Celtic Britain section takes up 45 pages. Romano-British 35 pages, Anglo-Saxon about 60 pages, English/British take up the other 500-odd pages. Scottish and Irish coins are listed in a separate book, "Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands", also by Spink. Link. But I don't think a new edition of that book has come out since the second edition, 2003.

I've put "Spink" on hold at the moment. Surely there are more than three of us who refer to catalogues on British coins.

I will name some of the ones that I have, with a few brief comments:-

COIN YEARBOOK 2010 (issued annually, 2012 edition should appear about October). The "everyday" book on British coins from Celtic days (not much detail), Roman (again, not many details), English Hammered 959 - 1485, and then a comprehensive guide 1656-date which is split, as appropriate, England, Scotland, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Ireland. Lots of general info, foreign dates, foreign mint-marks, metal detecting, and so on. There are no catalogue numbers. The only downside is that it is in paperback (352 pages) and first it splits into sections, then becomes loose-leaf. Price £9.95.

ENGLISH HAMMERED COINAGE by J J North, Vol.1 c.650 - 1272 (pub. 1963) and Vol.2 1272-1662 (pub 1960). Very good, but assume that the reader already has some knowledge of the subject - an example being that it gives illustrated notes on associated mint-marks but then forgets the mention which year or years a particular mint-mark applied to. Coins are numbered consecutively through the pair of books, Vol.1 conveniently ending at No.1000 and Vol.2 at 2784.

ENGLISH SILVER COINAGE FROM 1679 by H A Seaby and P Alan Rayner (pub.1949/1957 and 1968 with updates). A well detailed volume. A good test is always the Shillings of Queen Victoria and the three main types appear, plus a split into 10 sub-types - 11 illustrations are given. It is a book that I can work with. Coins are numbered 1-2594 and any that were omitted from previous issues, or new ones since, have a letter (sometimes 2-letter) suffix.

THE STANDARD CATALOGUE OF ENGLISH MILLED COINAGE IN SILVER, COPPER AND BRONZE 1662-1972, by Geoffrey M Cope and P Alan Rayner (pub.1975). A useful, no-nonsense book. The Victoria shillings are split 7 ways, but little fuss is made about die numbers, only notes against which years they were shown. Legitimate Proofs appear, but not Patterns. Unfortunately, a few coins, such as the circulation 3d for Colonial use, 1834-1844 are omitted, although most Cataloguers include them for completeness. There is also a general tendency to put as much as possible under Maundy rather than having a complete listing of (for instance) all 3d together. If a full listing of all accepted British coins were given, rather than keeping information on Colonial coins of British type minimal, and Maundy issues grouped into sets, this would be an excellent publication. Coins are numbered consecutively, from 1 to 3050.

BRITISH COPPER COINS AND THEIR VALUES, by P J Seaby and Monica Bussell, seventh edition 1969/1970. Only a small book (112 pages), but quite useful in its way. There are separate sections on Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Lundy, Guernsey, Jersey. There are no catalogue numbers. I do not refer to it very often, preferring the book described above.

COINCRAFT'S 1997 STANDARD CATALOGUE OF ENGLISH & UK COINS 1066 TO DATE, by Richard Lobel, Mark Davidson, Alan Hailstone & Eleni Calligas. The full 740 page, hard cover, catalogue. As it is not printed on art-paper, some of the illustrations suffer. Quite useful, but rather an unusual system of catalogue numbers.

I do have other books on British coins, but they are of a more specialised nature and could not be described as catalogues.

I will follow this with another short post on what I want!

Bill.

i have just 3 books that I use. but my british collection is not an "all encompasing" collection.

my spink (45th edition), english hammered coinage vol. 2 (3rd edition), and sylloge of coins of the british isles, vol. 39: the j.j. north collection.