A brief informal account of the development of our banking system, being a résumé of a PowerPoint presentation given recently to the Social History Group section of Bookham U3A.
General
Some Unusual Coin Measures – Gary Oddie
This note will present a gauge for the diameter of a pre-decimal shilling and a group of similar pieces which are also suspected to be diameter gauges for a shilling, sixpence and brass threepence. Any further information regarding these pieces and their use will be gratefully received.
Contributors to British Numismatics – Introduction – Gary Oddie
This note will provide a brief description of the archive, the reasons behind setting it up and the sources that have been used already to create the 800+ entries in the archive. The project has been prompted by the difficulties sometimes experienced in finding images of past collectors, dealers and authors etc. The late Harry Manville’s five-volume encyclopaedias were published between 1986 and 2009 and are extremely useful and virtually complete, but contain few illustrations, and no portraits of the characters within. The aim of this archive is to add some faces to the names and bring the works up to date. Incidental images, such as book plates, coin tickets and envelopes have also been added. A separate section has been created that contains just images of coin tickets and envelopes which is expected to initially have a life of its own with many of the names not yet appearing in the main archive.A final section describes future plans and also
read more Contributors to British Numismatics – Introduction – Gary Oddie
Numismatics and the Fortsas Library Sale of 1840 – Gary Oddie
Few library sales catalogues have generated as much interest at the time or subsequently as that printed for the sale of the library of Mr le Comte J.-N.-A. de Fortsas on the 10 August 1840. The auction report appeared in a local newspaper, describing the strong bidding, along with some of the prices realised and names of the buyers. Original copies of the catalogue were selling at a significant premium shortly after the date of the sale and it has been reprinted and translated several times. Chapters of books have also been written describing the build-up to the sale, the day of the sale and its aftermath. This note will describe details of the sale and then three numismatic and bibliophilic connections that came to light whilst looking into the related literature, though all is not as it initially appears.
A Commonwealth Bronze Mortar design inspired by the Domestic Coinage – Graham Birch
This brief article refers to an antique vessel, probably used by an apothecary, and discusses it’s decorative design in relation to Commonwealth coins of the period.
Some Insights into Medieval Die Production and Die Life – Part 2 – Die cutting – Dave Greenhalgh
This is the second installment of a series of articles detailing insights into medieval die production based on my own work.
The Spatial Distribution of Coins within the Plough Zone Horizon – Mike Cuddeford
This article was recently published in “Cæsaromagus”, the Journal of the Essex Numismatic Society, and is reproduced here by kind permission of the author. It should prove of interest to archaeologists and detectorists as well as numismatists.
Identifying Die Duplicates – Ian Heavisides
This brief article was first published in 2014 on the henry3.com website; however, as that site is due soon to be retired, the article, with minor updates, is now being reproduced here.
The Rise of The Standard Catalogue – Gary Oddie
A recent sorting and tidying of my bookcases revealed a range of different editions of the Seaby/Spink standard catalogues, acquired over some decades. In this brief article I chart the growth of this highly successful publication.
Harry Manville and BNJ and NC Offprints – Hugh Pagan
The present note explains the treatment of offprints in the late Harry Manville’s Numismatic Guide to British and Irish Printed Books 1600-2004; points out the difference between offprints that are repaginated and offprints which are simply bound from original printed sheets; identifies the point in time when the change from one type of offprint to the other was respectively made for BNJ and for NC; and makes some further observations about the utility of offprints and the number likely to have been printed of any given offprint of an article published in the major numismatic periodicals.
