Customer Reviews

Unusual World Coins: Companion Volume to Standard Catalog of World Coins

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Positives include the addition of many new images and coin listings.

Negatives include the use of many of the same old and tired images from Edition Three. Value estimates for the private issue patterns I am interested in are drastically below current market values.

All in all though, an acceptable reference book and the only game in town with regard to the world coins presented.

I knew the second edition and hoped this 4th edition would be much more than that first attempts to cover this endless territory of unofficial coins. The reality I found disappointing. There seems no clear line in choices which "coins" are in the book and which were not included. 80 year old issues that should be in this catalogue are missing; recent purely commercial issues that could be ignored are included.
Prices of the more modern issues are often only the issue price. That doesn't help to find a real market price.
All together I would say in some cases this book can be really helpful, but often you will find nothing about the coin/medal you're looking for.

This book, published as an accompaniment to the big daddy compendium titled 'Standard Catalog of World Coins' is given over to a slew of issues of "novel non-circulating coins, including fantasy issues, micro-nation coinage, medallic types and coins of pseudo-etats." As such, one will find issues from places as varied as 'Atlantis,' the Republic of China, Great Britain, 'Sealand' and Gardiner's Island. Some of the coins listed will have been issued, as in the Republic of China pieces during tumultuous, or perhaps I should say interesting times as a nascent although ultimately unsuccessful state struggled for legitimacy; others were officially issued by recognized and sovriegn nations but not for circulation; some were produced by entities claiming sovriegn status on somewhat shaky legal gounds, such as the above-mentioned Sealand which occupies a World War II anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea; and finally there is a handful of issues that have simply been made up and struck from whole cloth in a manner of speaking,in the monetary equivalent of a vanity press publication. There are other sub-categories but I'm sure you get the idea. The book describes the physical characteristics of the issues, tries to establish mintage dates and numbers, and metallic composition, and sometimes give some background information to boot. The resource is perfect for one attempting to find a little information about something he has found and is curious about. Unfortunately, it is no good for one who wants more than a little information as the authors give nothing more than thumbnail sketches when they give any background information at all. I think the book really falls down on this point. In addition, the author/editors neglect to tell the public what criteria were used to include and exclude various issues. I know almost nothing about this genre but even I immediately questioned some of the entries found in the United States section. I wish that a certain set of rules had been followed or perhaps that the book had been broken up into the various categories so that one would know pretty soon whether these were issued as modern fantasy nation pieces or as once circulating unrecognized states pieces, etc. I bought this version even though there is a later edition now available for the simple reason of cost. This edition can be had for very little money and it is worth every fantasy penny spent, in my opinion.

The book has many pictures and the coin price evaluations seem to be up-to-date. I bought this book because of its ECU coin listings.
Some countries are well covered like the Netherlands and Spain but on other countries most Ecu coins are missing.
What is really bad is that there are no Pre-Euro coins in this book. Therefore i give only 3 stars.

This is a coin catalogue worth buying even if you don't have a single coin it lists. The Unusual coins are really unusual in the way they depict human vain hopes, unattainable dreams, and impossible ambitions. You can see here coins from imaginary or lost empires (Russian monarchists struck their coins in 1990), states that have not been recognized by a single sovereign nation (Hutt River Province) or worlds which existed only in the imagination of writers (the Middle Earth) or private mints (Russian euro coins...). All this is a great tribute to human imagination and entepreneurial spirit, neatly presented in the form of a handy volume.
Naturally, you may actually collect these coins. In this case you will find the typical Krause quality - lots of pictures are missing, some coins are not listed completely but as it is in the case of all Krause catalogues: you just won't find anything better!

Excellent Reference Book, Pleased with quality. Rather complete. Glad I purchased it. Found the coins I had that were not in other catalogs.

I am in South Africa and I am ordering on a regular basis for the last six years books from AMAZON / Amazon sellers. I never had any problem, the service is super, the products fantastic and the delivery never longer than two weeks - WHAT more can i ask for? It is quicker/cheaper to buy at AMAZON Market place than at your up-the-street-shopping- mall. AMAZON makes it possible for me to enjoy my 45 year old collecting of banknotes, papermoney, tokens, coupons, notgeld and coins. Thanks AMAZON - Oemdhan Pieterse - 2010