Independent Book Review for Treasure Hunter magazine, January 2005 issue.

Collectors’ Coins Great Britain 2005.
32nd Edition, by Chris Perkins
ISBN: 0-948964-42-1
 Publisher: Rotographic

I can think of one or two hard-backed and rather pricey books on collecting modern coins that fail to provide their buyers with so much as half the useful knowledge served up in a slim A5 paper-back titled Collectors’ Coins: Great Britain 2005 that has just crossed my desk. This should not surprise me, bearing in mind that the publishers, Rotographic, can trace their pedigree back to those halcyon pre-decimal days in the early 1970s when anybody with a spirit of adventure and an eye for a bargain carried a copy of the miniscule Check Your Change in his/her pocket or purse; when bank clerks suffered all-day harassment to change pound notes for two-hundred-and-forty-pennies in hope that one of them might be a scarce 1918KN or even a legendary 1933.

For non-detectorists those days are gone forever; but weekend searches on any clay soil site still hold the possibility of Treasure Hunter readers finding at least Fine-grade examples of almost any coin from the past two hundred years. So if you missed the chance to buy the previous edition of this little book when I reviewed it about a year ago, here’s the very latest opportunity to add a fact-packed and extremely useful publication to your reference shelves for just £4.95. You’ll get 90-odd pages crammed margin-to-margin with information on every non-gold coin issued in Britain between 1797 and 2004. You’ll also get considerably improved illustrations, and a wealth of numismatic erudition served up in bite-sized snippets that make each turn of the page a minor revelation. Better still, you’ll have at your fingertips crucial price data culled by the editor and his researchers from a range of sources to ensure that prices quoted are accurate and up-to-the-minute.  I’m aware that a lot of Treasure Hunter readers bought the 2004 edition, but let me offer a few reasons why it’s worth investing a modest fiver (with 5p change) in this year’s edition: a stronger spine and hardier cover means the new book should stand up to a lot of heavy use as you tug it from your pocket to check on that nice Vicky shilling you’ve just detected; the sharper, brighter clearer illustrations will provide speedy identification of your finds; the improved layout means quicker flicking to the very page where your discovery will be identified; you’ll know at a glance the current value of any British coin find from 1797 right up to last year. Go ahead, invest £4.95 and pocket a constant reference to rarity and value in modern money.

Coming soon: ancient coinage given the same treatment! Watch out for my review of Collectors’ Roman Coins Part 1.

The publisher can be contacted via www.rotographic.com or phone 0871 871 5122.

Ted Fletcher.

20 November 2004