Numismatics - Coins and Paper Money

	For most of recorded history money has meant coins. However banking was invented well over a thousand years before coins and China abandoned paper money in favour of coins just as Europe was turning to paper. Today intangible forms of money ranging from e-money to Bowie bonds are becoming important. *For a narrative account of monetary history since the dawn of civilisation onwards see A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day* by Glyn Davies.** The web site based on the book includes an extensive annotated chronology as well as some essays by Roy Davies based on certain themes from the book.
	*See also*

	*Money in fiction*	*Financial Scandals*

A select list of links to information sources and articles on Coins and Paper Money

For information about particular coins and banknotes try the most appropriate links below and if they don't have the information you need you can try the numismatics books in your public library, or ask a local coin dealer (try the Yellow Pages) or take part in the discussions in the Usenet newsgroups rec.collecting.coins or rec.collecting.paper-money. You can also get access to those newsgroups via Google Groups. Don't ask me how much coins or banknotes are worth. Use the price guides in some of the links below or try coin dealers, the numismatic collections of libraries etc.

Numismatic Links

Coin Today : Daily Numismatic and Coin News: It claims to be the world's most read daily coin and numismatic news source. Coin Today also has sections on sources of information about coin prices.

British Commonwealth Numismatic Forum: A website covering all aspects of British Commonwealth numismatists. Numerous discussion groups specialising in different topics are included.

Coin Talk: A major numismatic discussion forum. All aspects are covered, including questions of how much particular coins are worth.

CoinLink: This site aims to be the world's largest collection of numismatic links. Among the features of the site are its section on price guides.

US Coin Pricing Guide: Part of the Best Coin website.

Professional Coin Grading Service: Provides information about the value of coins.

What's it Worth? Coin Collecting FAQ: Part of a file on answers to frequently asked questions.

Values of Coins of the UK: A page maintained by Tony Clayton, with data from Coin News or Coin Yearbook.

Paper Money Collecting FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (including "what's it worth?") on the subject of paper money collecting for the newsgroup rec.collecting.paper-money.

The International Banknote Society: The primary aim of the IBNS web site is to provide services to the IBNS members and Paper Money collectors in general. Topics covered include collecting, researching, studying, trading, storing and exchanging paper money.

Gold Content And Value Calculator: A calculator for determining the value of the gold in gold coins.

World Banknotes and Currency - Price Lists: Current prices of banknotes arranged by country. The list is part of a British paper money dealer's website.

The Catalogue of Currencies: A major source of detailed information about the notes and coins in use in different countries. It also includes information on outmoded banknotes and coins that are no longer legal tender.

The American Numismatic Association: is dedicated to the collection and study of coins, paper money, tokens and medals.

2-Clicks-Coins: The world's largest directory for coin collectors with lists of resources & guides for worldwide coin collectors.

NUMISMALINK.COM: A classified directory of internet resources focusing on rare coins, medals, tokens, and paper money. The emphasis is on links to numismatic periodicals, organizations, and educational sites. The site also includes a large collection of links to world mints and also to other directories of numismatic interest.

Allcoins.org: A large, non-commercial numismatic search engine and numismatic directory.

AlltheCoins Coin Directory: AlltheCoins makes coin dealers, resources, clubs searching more of the Web easier by returning the best results.

CoinNet: A dealer-to-dealer, computerised trading network.

Numismatica: This site is a good source of information on both coins and paper money.

Collector Network: A site for those who want to search for, buy or sell any collectibles - paper money, coins, stamps or anything you collect. It is also a great information resource - with articles, links and collecting events.

World Mints: A list from Numismatica.

Europe's early dated coins: An online expansion of the Albert Frey catalogue of dated European coinage before 1501 with additional coins up to 1530. The website also includes a listing of the coins in date order.

The Royal Mint: Home page of the British Royal Mint with information about its services. It also has articles written by staff of the Royal Mint Museum.

Penydarren locomotive bicentenary coin: On 21st February 1804, the the first ever journey by steam train was made in South Wales. The locomotive designed by the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick travelled from Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon. To mark one of the most significant anniversaries in the development of the modern world the Royal Mint issued a special £2 coin. For more information about Trevithick and the invention of the steam train see the commemorative website, Trevithick 2004.

The Austrian Mint: Foundation History: The history of the Austrian Mint goes back to 1194. It was established using the ransom paid the previous year for King Richard the Lionheart of England who was captured on his way back from the Third Crusade and imprisoned in Austria.

Coinsheet Numismatic Directory: A large set of links maintained by a site that covers everything to do with gold, Goldsheet Mining Directory

Exonumia: Articles of interest to all collectors of tokens, medals, buttons, badges, ribbons and other small collectibles.

Ergonumix: The World Numismatics gateway : Europe, America, Africa, Asia, Pacific. Features include Argus price list for coins, notes, stamps with photos, free valuations, new coins and bannotes of the World and a thematic search engine.

Galata Coins: A dealer based in Llanfyllin, Wales and specialising in coins of the world. Galata also produces a number of publications, including books on British coin weights that were used for weighing coins in the days when coins consisted mainly of precious metals. The site includes news, catalogues of coins and books for sale, and book reviews.

Littleton Coin Company: An American company that has been serving coin collectors since 1945.

Online Coins: The catalogue is searchable by country of origin and type of coin.

US Rare Coin Investments: An informative site for collectors and investors. Specialist in early US gold, St Gaudens, Bust dollars and Pattern coins. Free forum and newsletter.

Friends of the Segovia Mint: These pages have a considerable amount of information not just on the Segovia mint but on minting technology and the history of minting in general.

Delcampe: Another coin dealer's site where you can buy ancient and medieval coins.

cgb.fr Numismatic: This site includes many pictures of coins and banknotes from around the world, historical documents relevant to French monetary history from the reign of Charles II to Louis XVI, and a search engine.

Jean Elsen s.a.: This site of a numismatic auction house and coin dealer in Belgium includes, among other things, an extensive catalogue of books and a bibliography of relevant articles as well as the text of a number of articles by the company itself.

Metals Used in Coins and Medals: by Tony Clayton. This lists the various metals and alloys that have been used to make coins and gives details of their properties. It also explains why certain metals have not been used for making coins.

Calgary Coin Gallery: This site includes catalogues of coins originating in many parts of the world, (with some pictures) and a lot of historical information on topics such as Roman and Chinese coins, as well as links to other numismatics sites.

Department of Coins and Medals of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge: Among the noteworthy features of this site are a database of coin finds in Britain 410-1180, and an online list of numismatic sales catalogues.

Philip Grierson: An obituary of the world-class scholarand collector who used coins to solve historical mysteries. Guardian, 18 January 2006.

Hasfam Coins & Currency Links and Resource Guide: It includes a large, alphabetically arranged directory of relevant sites.

Shuichi Yamashita's Numismatics site: This is a tri-lingual site, in Japanese, English and German. It has many images of oriental coins, many of considerable antiquity, and some western ones as well.

Numismatic History and Coinage of modern Greece: Information about the Greek drachma throughout history.

Greek Numismatics: The website of the Hellenic Numismatic Society with details of its publications covering Greek money, medals, decorations etc. from Antiquity to the present day.

Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth: Antony and Cleopatra, one of history's most romantic couples, were not the great beauties that Hollywood would have us believe, academics have said. BBC, 14 February 2007.

Images of Alexander the Great: Coins: In addition to images of the coins this site contains links to articles about them. It is part of a large site on all aspects of Alexander the Great.

The Coins and History of Asia: Containing information on almost 450 coins, these pages are to be a resource for students of Near Eastern, Persian, Indian, Central Asian and Chinese history from 600 BC to 1600 AD.

Asian Money Depot: The most comprehensive site on Chinese banknotes.

Early Islamic Coins: An extensive site maintained by James N. Roberts.

Islamic coins during the Umayyad, Abassid, Andalusian and Fatimid Dynasties: An article based on a book by Wijdan Ali.

A fistful of thalers: Kevin Rushby follows Clara Semple on the trail of the Maria Theresa Thaler, the coin that launched a thousand ships in A Silver Legend. Guardian, 14 January 2006.

Silver Legend: A Coin of Cosmopolitan Importance: An exhibition at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies of the University of Exeter based on Clara Semple's book on the Maria Theresa Thaler. 1 February - 30 April 2010.

A fistful of thalers: Kevin Rushby follows Clara Semple on the trail of the Maria Theresa Thaler, the coin that launched a thousand ships in A Silver Legend. Guardian, 14 January 2006.

The Word "Dollar" and the Dollar Sign $: The origins, history and geography of dollar currencies.

University of Vienna Department for Numismatics and Monetary History: Information about research carried out by the department.

Euromaster: An online catalogue of Euro coins from the different countries using the new currency.

Irish Coins and Banknotes: by John Stafford-Langan.

Norske mynter gjennom 1000 aar: 1000 years of Norwegian coins. The articles are in Norwegian but you don't have to be able to read Norwegian to appreciate the photographs and diagrams.

Berghs Mynt: A coin dealer offering mainly swedish and other Scandinavian coins but in addition some German, American, and ancient and medieval coins.

Antikvarisk numismatisk Literatur: Antiquarian literature on coins. Many of the books are in Scandinavian languages.

Ecuador's 8 Escudos Coin in Moby Dick: Chapter 99 of Herman Melville's great novel is entitled the Dubloon. This website has a lot about the coin described by Melville.

History of the Mexican Coin: From the Banco de México website.

History of the Mexican Banknote: From the Banco de México website.

Cuba Bank Notes: Photographs of Cuban bank notes from all periods.

University of Notre Dame Coin and Currency Collections: These web pages are particularly good in their coverage of colonial and early America. There are answers to frequently asked questions, including ones on how much particular coins and notes are worth.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's American Currency Exhibit: This site contains images of currency and historical information.

America's historic currency exhibit: A teaching package with information about and images of historic American currency, now available on DVD.

Silver Certificate: Silver Certificates came in to being in the US in 1878. They were simply intended to be a surrogate for silver coin. This article about them is from the Wikipedia.

The Color of Money: by Clifford F. Thies. Information about the design of official US banknotes from the Civil War onwards.

Where's George?!: A project for tracking them movements of individual American banknotes.

Where's Willy?!: A project for tracking the movements of individual Canadian banknotes.

P. J. Symes: Peter Symes is a publisher of books and articles on world paper money. Many of his articles are freely available at his website. Among them are ones on note issues by various currency boards and the banknotes of certain secessionist states in different parts of the world.

ATS World Paper Money, Banknotes, Notgeld etc.: The site contains a large price list of old and recent world banknotes, including a selection of Polish and Russian issues, a complete catalogue of banknotes issued by Former Soviet Union countries and a large price list of emergency paper money. local, prisoner of the war(POW), private issues mostly from the time of first and second World War, collectible bonds and stock certificates.

Scripophily: Robert A. Kerstein's site devoted to the collection of cancelled old stocks and bonds.

Scripofilia: An Italian website selling old banknotes.

Secrets of Making Money: Information about how US banknotes are made and measures to defeat counterfeiters.

History of Scottish Banknotes: In most countries it is only the governments, through their central banks, who are permitted to issue currency but in Scotland three banks are still allowed to issue banknotes.

Private Issues - The Chief Treasury of Wales and the Black Sheep Company: An article about the work of Richard Williams who circumvented official restrictions on the issue of bank notes.

Viking Coins in Norway: An essay by Thor-Egil Paulsen.

The Vikings and Money in England: An essay by Roy Davies.

The Significance of Celtic Coinage: An essay by Roy Davies.

Money and Coins in Medieval Wales: An essay by Roy Davies.

History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day: This is a series of essays based on a book with the same title by Glyn Davies. The three essays listed above belong to this collection but in addition there are others of related interest.

British Coins before the Florin, Compared to French Coins of the Ancien Régime: This site not only has a considerable amount of information about particular types of British and French coins, including their sizes and weights, but also covers Bank of England notes, American coins, and the British Coinage of India, 1835-1947.

Celtic Coin Index: A collection of more than 32000 images of Celtic coins found in Britain, and information about minting techniques, further reading, etc.

"Exceptional" Roman coins hoard: One of the largest deposits of Roman coins ever recorded in Wales, has been declared treasure trove. Nearly 6,000 copper alloy coins were found buried in two pots in a field at Sully, Vale of Glamorgan by a local metal detector enthusiast in April 2008.

Ancient gold hoard found in Midlands: Archaeologists unearthed between 3,000 and 4,000 silver and gold ancient British coins as well as other treasures near Market Harborough in south Leicestershire. The coins, date from the first four decades of the first century AD. Most are Corieltauvian, but some were minted by other British tribal groups. The Independent, 8 April 2003.

Coriosolite Expert System: The Coriosolites were one of several tribes in Brittany who issued a large number of coins at the time of Caesar's campaigns in Gaul. This site has a great deal of information about Celtic coins, and includes details of computer techniques used in their classification.

Coin unearths new Roman emperor: A coin that confirmed the existence of Domitianus, a little-known Roman emperor is going on display at a new exhibition at the British Museum. BBC, 25 February 2004.

Mike R. Vosper's Celtic, Roman & Hammered Coin site: A wide range of coins for sale.

Perspectives in Numismatics: Studies Presented to the Chicago Coin Club; These studies, edited by Saul B. Needleman, cover a range of topics from Roman and medieval coins onwards.

Britain's hoard of ancient coins: The British Museum has unveiled the most expensive coin in history. The ninth-century coin depicts Coenwulf, the ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia from 796 to 821, and it is thought to be the oldest example of gold currency commemorating a British ruler - which helps to explain why the museum paid £357,832 to the anonymous person who found it near Bedford in 2001. The Guardian, February 9 2006.

Making Coins and Period Coins: This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme compiled by Stefan li Rous.

National Musuem of Wales: Numismatics: Information about the museum's coin collections.

Dug UpJay: A website shared by Jay Howe, a well-known metal detectorist and Paul White, a dealer.

UK Detector Net: Among other things this site includes news of recent discoveries of coin hoards by metal detectorists.

What's a Guinea? Money and Coinage in Victorian Britain: An explanation by Paul Lewis of Britain's pre-decimal coinage.

UK Coin Company: A company specialising in pre-1967 British coins.

Coins of Danish East India -Tranquebar: by Uno Barner Jensen who has written a book on the subject. (It is available in English as well as Danish).

Nupam's Webpage for Indian Coins: Details of Indian coinage from the earliest times onwards.

Phoenician Money: Examples of Phonecian coins.

Did the Phoenicians discover the New World?: Mark McMenamin, a geologist at Mount Holyoke, claims that gold coins minted in Carthage between 350 and 320 BC have a design incorporating a map of the ancient world, including the area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and the land mass representing the Americas.

Israeli caves yield ancient coins: Israeli archaeologists have discovered coins they believe date back to a failed second-century Jewish rebellion against Roman rule. BBC, 18 April 2003.

Menorah Coin Project: A database with a of a die by die indexing, classification and representation of Biblical coins.

Genuine Coins of the Bible Period: A website created by Edmond W. Holroyd for the purpose of affirming, through the physical evidence of ancient coins, that the history described in the Bible is real history, not fiction.

Pilate Coins: The coins of Pontius Pilate are the privileged, but affordable witnesses to an era and to an event that would profoundly and forever change the history of humanity - the crucifixion of Jesus.

[ Top ]
[ Money - Past, Present & Future ]
[ History of Money ]
[ Glyn Davies - biography ]
[ Book Orders ]
[ High Finance in Thrillers ]
[ Roy Davies' Home Page ]
[ Inca Trail Home Page ]

Last updated 28 January 2010.
Roy Davies