Notice of Meeting

The next meeting of the PEINA will be held on Monday, May 15, 2000, at 7:30 pm in the library of Colonel Gray Senior High School, 175 Spring Park Road, Charlottetown. The Executive will meet beforehand, at 7 p.m.
 

May Programme

Ralph Dickieson's promised presentation on the PEI one cent copper coin of 1871 will be on the programme in May. Again, bring your coin(s), and that could include any treasures acquired in Dartmouth at the APNA meeting.
 

The April Meeting

We had selected April 17 as our meeting date long before some guy from down east named Binns announced his plans to make the 17th his important date too! Well, it was quite a night for Premier Binns and a sparsely attended meeting for us. However, a handful of diehards gathered in the Colonel Gray library and with some important issues on the table, decided to hold them over until the May meeting and a larger representation of members. For consideration next time: the draft constitution, hosting the Spring 2001 APNA rally, and the request of the APNA for someone from our ranks to serve on the APNA board.

The slide show from CNA was somewhat reduced as not all the slides were received, however those slides that were on hand presented some handsome coins and certainly were a pleasure to view.

Interesting, there is no slide show available of PEI material. Could that be a project for us sometime?
 

Book Review: Online Bookstores and the Numismatist

It is no secret that books on numismatics are often hard to come by. The excellent reference works by Charlton and Krause are essential tools for many serious collectors, but beyond that, where do you go? Chances are very good that you'll never see coin books in your local bookstore, beyond the basic paperback guidebooks. The C.N.A. Library is quite well stocked with reference works and will let members borrow for up to one month, but what can you do if you want to have your own copy of Breton, or would like a copy of some other long-out-of-print publication for ongoing reference?.

This might be a good time to mention that there are two used bookstores on Queen Street in Charlottetown where the odd coin book has been known to turn up. At one store, not long ago, this writer paid $14.95 for a copy in near mint condition of J. Richard Becker's "The Decimal Coinage of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island".

Further afield, the Coin Cabinet in Moncton has a small stock of reference books while in the Attic Owl, a cozy second-hand bookstore in Halifax, a copy of "The Beauty and Lore of Coins, Currency and Medals" was found for $15. The authors are identified as Curators of Numismatics at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and the book's colour reproductions are well worth the price. Also in Halifax there is both a coin shop and a second-hand bookstore in the shopping mall attached to the Barrington Inn on Barrington Street, opposite Scotia Square, and in both places I have been lucky to find useful and sometimes obscure reference material. But in all cases, chance played a role. What if you are looking for something specific, and you want it now?

Using a computer and the Internet, either in your own home or at the public library, there are a number of places that you can check for the books you want. In theory, these large booksellers will have what you want in their huge inventories. Indigo and Amazon.com are two well-known on-line booksellers, but after a little while you may make the same discovery as this writer. Lots of books are listed by these companies, but they aren't always in stock or even in print.

These book dealers will often turn to the second-hand trade to obtain the books you request, and on one recent occasion I was told that sorry, it's out of print and go try the second-hand bookstores yourself!

For the numismatist who wants to "collect the book before you collect the coin", to use a recent book month slogan, there are two places worth trying. The first is www.abebooks.com and the second is www.bibliofind.com and each is worth a careful investigation. Abebooks is the Advanced Book Exchange, a computer network of 6000 independent booksellers around the world who put their book inventory on the Internet. There is a search engine available, and you type in the details of what you are looking for. The inventories will then be searched and the results will be on your screen in moments. It saves a lot of shoe leather!

Having found the book, you can then buy online either directly from abebooks.com via their secure (so they claim) server or you can go directly to the individual bookseller to complete the transaction. For the collector intent upon building up a library pertaining to a specific area of numismatics, this service has many advantages over random visits to local second-hand shops.

Bibliofind works much the same way, and even boasts a currency converter so you can see what 30 dollars US or 40 English pounds will cost you. Bibliofind also offers a want list, where you can register the details of a book you are seeking and the dealers will keep an eye open for you.

Does this system have a drawback? Certainly. You can easily get carried away and spend a bundle! Recently I borrowed from the CNA Library, the 1967 reprint of W. J. Davis' 1904 book "The Nineteenth Century Token Coinage", for my research into the Wellington series of tokens. This proved to be a most useful book, and one that would be useful to have handy on the shelf. I later looked for this book at bibliofind and located a copy offered by an American bookstore for $110 US. Well, that's something to think about and perhaps mention to Santa!

In closing, it is certainly worth mentioning one name that keeps popping up on a regular basis when I look for books online. Charles Davis Numismatic Literature of Wenham, Massachusetts, is a bookstore that specializes exclusively in you-know-what. The Davis inventory can be accessed through abebooks.com and its inventory searched by author, title, publisher and keyword. Davis can also be contacted directly, at numislit@aol.com. Charles Davis advertises that in addition to numismatic books, he carries auction catalogues, new and used reference books, numismatic periodicals, and books published by himself.

Conclusions? Building up a good reference library in your area of collecting interest is important, and it's not always easy to do. Keeping your eyes open all the time is certainly advised, but the online bookstores are hard to avoid if you are looking for something specific and are prepared to pay the price to have it now. mbh
 

The Confederation Centre Library's Numismatic Books

In the last Newsletter you were promised a list of books on numismatics available through the Confederation Centre Library. So, your reporter and his notebook made a flying visit one very busy Sunday afternoon to prepare a basic inventory. This list is not exhaustive, and it is quite possible that many books were out on loan. However, the reference books do not circulate and anyone can go to the Library and consult them at any time.

In the list that follows, standard bibliographic entry has not been followed. Rather, you will find enough information to give you a general idea of what the book is about (usually the title will do this) so that you can decide how useful it may be to your own collecting interests.
 

A: Reference books, non-circulating, library use only.
 

(1) Standard Catalogue ofWorld Coins. Krause, 1996. Covers 1801 to the present. Ref: 737.4/KRA Weighs a ton!
 

(2) 1997 Charlton Coin Guide. 36^th edition. Ref: 737.4/CHA/1997. An overview of Canadian coins, tokens, medals, US coins, and world gold coins. Very general.
 

(3) Charlton StandardCatalogue of Canadian Colonial Tokens. 2^nd edition, 1990. Ref: 737/CHA. Slightly dated but still useful if you do not have the latest edition published in the past few weeks.
 

(4) Currency and Medals ofPrince Edward Island. Ref: 737/GRA. This is the standard reference work for P.E.I. and the 2^nd volume in the Canadian Numismatic History Series. Two of our present members contributed to this volume and copies are still available from our past president.
 

(5) Richard G. Doty, TheMacMillan Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatics (1982). Ref: 737/DOT Quite a fascinating reference work, with entries on all sorts of subjects connected to numismatics. I could not help noticing "Kriegsgeld" and have made a note to return to this book to have a closer look. Very good illustrations.
 

(6) 1998 Official Canadian Coin Guide, by Unitrade Press. Ref: 737.4/OFF/1998 Covers Canadian coins, tokens, paper money, and US coins. A general survey.
 

(7) R. C. Willey, Dictionary ofCanadian Medallists. Canadian Numismatic Research Society, Occasional Paper No. 2. Here, I was so wrapped up in the text that I forgot to write down the call number, but you'll find it in the 737/WIL area. A most useful reference book, and another that bears close scrutiny for collectors of Wellington tokens, Both Isaac Parkes (1792-1870) and Thomas Halliday (1780-1844) are mentioned.
 

(8) 1999 Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins. 53^rd edition. Ref: 737.4/CHA/1999 One of the most useful books on the shelf for collectors of Canadian decimal coinage.
 

(9) J. A. Haxby and R. C. Willey, Coins of Canada. 15^th edition, 1997. Ref: 737.4/HAX/1997. Another very useful reference work.
 

(10) Charles J. Andrews, Fell'sInternational Coin Book; the definitive foreign coin guide. Ref: 737.4/AND This book may claim to be definitive but in fact most advanced collectors will find it too general. Krause will be preferred, but for beginners or a collector trying to identify a coin, this slim volume will at least point you in the right direction.
 

(11) Charlton StandardCatalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money. 4^th edition, 1991. Ref: 769/CHA. Note that books on paper money have a slightly different call number. This is the standard guide for those who collect Canadian paper, and the book covers the territory from playing card money of New France to the stuff we wish we had more of in our wallets and purses.
 

(B) Non-reference, circulating books.
 

(12) Albert Pick, StandardCatalogue of World PaperMoney. 2^nd edition, 1977. 769/PIC. The pages of this standard work have turned yellow-brown with age but, if it's all you've got, it can be useful. More recent editions exist, but not in Charlottetown.
 

(13) Yasha Beresiner and Colin C. Narbeth, The Story of PaperMoney. 1973. A very informative reference book, lots of b&w illustrations. Chapters begin with "Early Paper Money" and a worldwide perspective, followed by very specific chapters on British banknotes, inflation notes, siege notes, and even World War II paper money. Fascinating topics, and a good general treatment.
 

(14) Michele Menard, Coins of the Modern Olympic Games. Volume I: Issued By Host Countries. 1991. 737.4/MEN

Just what the title says, and with great detail on these coins. Most appear to be NCLT in nature, and many are visually stunning. Worth a look.
 

(15) Margo Russell, StartCollecting Coins. 1989. 737.4/RUS. Has lots of illustrations and a glossary of terms. A good overview of coins, coin history, and collecting.
 

(16) Freeman Clowery, Medalsof the Lieutenant-Governors of Canada. 1972. 737.2/CLO. Just as it says, although not all provinces issued such medals.
 

(17) Leslie C. Hill and Scott A. Simpson, Yukon Numismatica. 1990. 737/HIL. Everything you ever wanted to know about Yukon numismatic history. Remarkable stuff, and a real labour of love on the part of these two collectors.
 

Like I said, this was a fairly quick trip to the Library and it is possible a few items were signed out on loan. But as you can see, there is a good basic library here and what's more, it available to all of us and it's free.

What's missing from this picture? Breton on Canadian tokens, as well as Sandham and others. The book Coins of New Brunswick by Professor Richard Bird, in the same series as the PEI book. The Krause reference works on coins after 1500 (I think there are two volumes here). Books on ancient and medieval coins, British and American coins. But it's a good start, and some of the gaps are filled by the holdings at UPEI's Robertson Library. If you happen to have bought a new edition of a reference book and no longer use the older volume , why not give it to the Library? I am sure it will receive good use.
 

Wellington Tokens

A piece on Wellington tokens was promised for this issue but research is "ongoing". Perhaps this fall? Information is scattered here and there and getting it all together is a challenge, a frustration and then a delight when a piece falls into place. Meanwhile, the editor seeks contributions. See you on Monday evening at Colonel Gray.