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DaveG38

Coin Monthly Magazine

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1 hour ago, DaveG38 said:

I have considered the idea of digitising the entire series of Coin Monthly and publishing them online for collectors to use. It's a hell of a task, and one that I would be happy to do (slowly) if I could be sure that there are no copyright issues. Unfortunately, when I tried to establish ownership of the copyright that proved to be a very tricky task, and so I abandioned the idea, even though I believe it would be very worthwhile.

Sounds like a very big job, Dave. I seem to remember you mentioning the copyright issue once before, and it all kind of fell on stony ground. Worth pursuing though - IMO any rate.

28 minutes ago, Peckris 2 said:

The publishers were an outfit in Essex, no longer in existence? I note from the Booksie site that a Ralf Dunn published the first of a new magazine 'Coin Monthly' a couple of years ago. Perhaps he bought the rights to the name? Or didn't know there used to be a magazine that name? I haven't looked into that any further.

Coin Monthly itself worked out of Sovereign House, High Street, Brentwood. I ought to have looked the place up when I lived down there, as I'm from Chelmsford, which is very nearby, and visited Brentwood a number of times. Not sure where the magazine was actually printed - maybe they would, in turn, know when the last edition was if they still exist.

Sovereign House can be seen on this Google Street view - it's the place on the corner with the bins outside. If you close in, you can see "Sovereign House" on the blue plaque, upper side of the building. Looks like it's some type of clinic now.   

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On 13 September 2019 at 10:57 PM, 1949threepence said:

Coin Monthly itself worked out of Sovereign House, High Street, Brentwood. I ought to have looked the place up when I lived down there, as I'm from Chelmsford, which is very nearby, and visited Brentwood a number of times. Not sure where the magazine was actually printed - maybe they would, in turn, know when the last edition was if they still exist.

Sovereign House can be seen on this Google Street view - it's the place on the corner with the bins outside. If you close in, you can see "Sovereign House" on the blue plaque, upper side of the building. Looks like it's some type of clinic now.   

That gave me a Google Maps page, with a small map lower left, and the normal headers, but the street view picture is blank apart from navigation arrows. However, going to Google Maps directly for that address, I did get there. Interesting - zooming in I see there is a url for sovereignhouses, who are my sisters' landlords in Devon. Sovereign Houses in Sovereign House? Could be a coincidence, or maybe they snapped up the lease as the address matched their company name?

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5 hours ago, Peckris 2 said:

That gave me a Google Maps page, with a small map lower left, and the normal headers, but the street view picture is blank apart from navigation arrows. However, going to Google Maps directly for that address, I did get there. Interesting - zooming in I see there is a url for sovereignhouses, who are my sisters' landlords in Devon. Sovereign Houses in Sovereign House? Could be a coincidence, or maybe they snapped up the lease as the address matched their company name?

Or may be they got the idea from the name itself - interesting that.

Looks like a building housing a number of different concerns/organisations.  

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1 minute ago, 1949threepence said:

Or may be they got the idea from the name itself - interesting that.

Looks like a building housing a number of different concerns/organisations.  

Check the shareholder/director lists for the various companies and you might find out something relevant. You can go back in time too when it comes to limited company filings.

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Sovereign Homes don't go back as far as the 60s, when I presume the CM address was still Sov House?

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7 minutes ago, Peckris 2 said:

Sovereign Homes don't go back as far as the 60s, when I presume the CM address was still Sov House?

They must have moved to Sovereign house in 1968.

Their address in April 1968 was given as "The Numismatic Publishing Company, 10 Goodmayes Road, Goodmayes, Ilford, Essex" 

By January 1969 it's changed to the Sovereign House, High Street, Brentwood address.

I don't have any of the magazines between April 68 and January 69, so can't pinpoint it more precisely.      

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Managed to get hold of a copy of the Coin Yearbook for 1992 - presumably the last one produced by Coin Monthly.

Probably printed about September 1991 and from reading it, absolutely no clue they were in any difficulty.  

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3 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Managed to get hold of a copy of the Coin Yearbook for 1992 - presumably the last one produced by Coin Monthly.

Probably printed about September 1991 and from reading it, absolutely no clue they were in any difficulty.  

Doesn't surprise me - most publications wouldn't give out that kind of information for several possible reasons. 

However I'm a bit doubtful about it being the last issue? Philip Mussell of Coin News did say "we started the COIN NEWS YEARBOOK in 1994 and dropped the word NEWS and adopted the blue pages in 1997 – after the demise of COIN MONTHLY and the other YEARBOOK" which seems to imply that Coin Monthly's yearbook continued for a few years after 1992?

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2 hours ago, Peckris 2 said:

Doesn't surprise me - most publications wouldn't give out that kind of information for several possible reasons. 

However I'm a bit doubtful about it being the last issue? Philip Mussell of Coin News did say "we started the COIN NEWS YEARBOOK in 1994 and dropped the word NEWS and adopted the blue pages in 1997 – after the demise of COIN MONTHLY and the other YEARBOOK" which seems to imply that Coin Monthly's yearbook continued for a few years after 1992?

I'll keep looking.

I have actually seen a 1994 Coin News yearbook on offer, but no Coin Monthly beyond the 1992. So whether there was any overlap or not, who knows. If Coin Monthly did indeed cease at some point in 1992, then I would have thought it unlikely there would have been any more annuals from them. Unless it was much later in the year.   

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1 hour ago, 1949threepence said:

I'll keep looking.

I have actually seen a 1994 Coin News yearbook on offer, but no Coin Monthly beyond the 1992. So whether there was any overlap or not, who knows. If Coin Monthly did indeed cease at some point in 1992, then I would have thought it unlikely there would have been any more annuals from them. Unless it was much later in the year.   

Here's their first, from 1994

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Coin-News-Yearbook-1994-James-Mackay-and-John-Mussell-Editors-Used-Good/382814188686?hash=item592180f48e:g:u90AAOSwC8ZceC9z

The first without NEWS was 1997, as they said

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Coin-Yearbook-1997-Mackay-James-A-Used-Good-Book/383115087065?epid=87422213&hash=item5933704cd9:g:fFAAAOSw8sZdXZvd

Here's a Coin Monthly yearbook, 1991 (nothing for 1990, 92, or 93, which just means "not on eBay")

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coins-Year-Book-1991-A-priced-listing-of-all-British-Coins/392429841317?hash=item5b5ea42ba5:g:x2MAAOSwrHJdYrnq

1989

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=coin+yearbook+1997&_ftrt=901&_sop=12&_sadis=15&_dmd=1&_osacat=0&_stpos=EX2+5TQ&_ipg=50&_ftrv=1&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=coin+yearbook+1989&_sacat=0

Before that, there's 1987 but nothing else until as far back as 1983.

I think it possible (though no evidence as yet) that Coin Monthly's yearbook may have continued after the magazine folded if they saw profit in it - after all, Seaby/Spink, Coincraft, Collectors Coins, and C&MV all published annuals without a magazine to underwrite them.

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From a timing point of view, based on my own collection of Coin Monthly magazines, it seems likely that the last issue of the magazine was February 1992. If that is the case, then it is likely that there was no Coin Monthly Yearbook after this as the business folded, i.e. there would be no 1993 issue, which would normally have been worked on leading up to the end of that year. That would leave an obvious gap in the market, which Coin News may have picked up on, but they would not have been able to react quickly enough to put a yearbook out for 1993, so they were forced to do so in 1994.

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17 minutes ago, DaveG38 said:

From a timing point of view, based on my own collection of Coin Monthly magazines, it seems likely that the last issue of the magazine was February 1992. If that is the case, then it is likely that there was no Coin Monthly Yearbook after this as the business folded, i.e. there would be no 1993 issue, which would normally have been worked on leading up to the end of that year. That would leave an obvious gap in the market, which Coin News may have picked up on, but they would not have been able to react quickly enough to put a yearbook out for 1993, so they were forced to do so in 1994.

It was !!! I've got it from the Fitzwilliam Museum website of coin periodicals - link here

If you scroll down alphabetically to Coin Monthly, or just go to pages 38 to 39, you can see that the last Coin Monthly magazine was indeed, February 1992.

Mystery solved.

Of course, what we don't know is precisely what caused them to suddenly fold. I'm assuming that there's no clue in that February 1992 edition, Dave?

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1 hour ago, 1949threepence said:

It was !!! I've got it from the Fitzwilliam Museum website of coin periodicals - link here

If you scroll down alphabetically to Coin Monthly, or just go to pages 38 to 39, you can see that the last Coin Monthly magazine was indeed, February 1992.

Mystery solved.

Of course, what we don't know is precisely what caused them to suddenly fold. I'm assuming that there's no clue in that February 1992 edition, Dave?

Well done that man!!! From memory, I don't recall seeing any advance notice suggesting there would be no March edition, but I'll go and hook it out and have a browse through it. Won't take long as it got thinner and thinner as the years went by. Again, many thanks for this info.

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Just looked through my Feb 1992 copy - all 66 pages of it. There are several references to future articles:

Bottom of Page 7 - In Search of A Precursor - Part III - overdates and their precursors.

P31 - In 'Market Movements' they planned to cover 2d, 11/2d, 1d and 1/2d in March.

P40 - Still asking for coin lists, catalogues to be sent in for compiling the 'Market Movements' tables.

P56 - Part 2 of 'The Gods of The Hindus' was to be included in the March edition.

From this, I guess there was an abrupt end to the business - given the low sales they achieved in later years this isn't a surprise. In practice the mag was published on the second Thursday of the month preceding the cover date, and the March edition was planned to be published on 13 Feb 1992. This means that whatever occurred took place sometime between mid January and mid February 1992.

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8 minutes ago, DaveG38 said:

Just looked through my Feb 1992 copy - all 66 pages of it. There are several references to future articles:

Bottom of Page 7 - In Search of A Precursor - Part III - overdates and their precursors.

P31 - In 'Market Movements' they planned to cover 2d, 11/2d, 1d and 1/2d in March.

P40 - Still asking for coin lists, catalogues to be sent in for compiling the 'Market Movements' tables.

P56 - Part 2 of 'The Gods of The Hindus' was to be included in the March edition.

From this, I guess there was an abrupt end to the business - given the low sales they achieved in later years this isn't a surprise. In practice the mag was published on the second Thursday of the month preceding the cover date, and the March edition was planned to be published on 13 Feb 1992. This means that whatever occurred took place sometime between mid January and mid February 1992.

Sounds as though something occurred - probably connected with cashflow - which caused them to make the decision to cease abruptly. 

The fact it was so sudden, with no fanfare (for want of a better word) is probably why it's been so difficult to find out. Last editions flagged up as such, would have been more widely kept and hence available now. Probably regular readers would have thought at first that the shop they used had run out of stock. Unless they had it on mail order.  

At least we now know.  

 

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2 hours ago, DaveG38 said:

From a timing point of view, based on my own collection of Coin Monthly magazines, it seems likely that the last issue of the magazine was February 1992. If that is the case, then it is likely that there was no Coin Monthly Yearbook after this as the business folded, i.e. there would be no 1993 issue, which would normally have been worked on leading up to the end of that year. That would leave an obvious gap in the market, which Coin News may have picked up on, but they would not have been able to react quickly enough to put a yearbook out for 1993, so they were forced to do so in 1994.

That's certainly the most likely, I'd say. However, don't rule out the possibility that sales of the Year Book were comparatively healthy compared to the magazine, and that a new company was hastily formed just to publish that, but failing also a few years later. Don't forget that Philip Mussell published their Year Book from 1994 with the word NEWS in the title, which wasn't removed until 1997. If my hunch is right, then the original Coin Yearbook failed possibly due to that competition. 

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1 hour ago, DaveG38 said:

Just looked through my Feb 1992 copy - all 66 pages of it. There are several references to future articles:

Bottom of Page 7 - In Search of A Precursor - Part III - overdates and their precursors.

P31 - In 'Market Movements' they planned to cover 2d, 11/2d, 1d and 1/2d in March.

P40 - Still asking for coin lists, catalogues to be sent in for compiling the 'Market Movements' tables.

P56 - Part 2 of 'The Gods of The Hindus' was to be included in the March edition.

From this, I guess there was an abrupt end to the business - given the low sales they achieved in later years this isn't a surprise. In practice the mag was published on the second Thursday of the month preceding the cover date, and the March edition was planned to be published on 13 Feb 1992. This means that whatever occurred took place sometime between mid January and mid February 1992.

What does companies house say about the company's business and trading figures for say 1990-1995, assuming that the company name is mentioned somewhere in the magazine. Annual returns on file might shed some light on their financial situation. Any director resignations leading up to the time in question?

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They failed because sales fell as they raised the cover price. £4 or so then must be £10 today. I know I stopped buying it a couple of years previously because of the price. Content was crap as well.  

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On 9/13/2019 at 9:49 PM, DaveG38 said:

I have considered the idea of digitising the entire series of Coin Monthly and publishing them online for collectors to use. It's a hell of a task, and one that I would be happy to do (slowly) if I could be sure that there are no copyright issues. Unfortunately, when I tried to establish ownership of the copyright that proved to be a very tricky task, and so I abandioned the idea, even though I believe it would be very worthwhile.

I have digitised all the Decimal content for my own use only. Theres not that much actually.

1089694820_CoinMonthlyDecimalContents_V04_small.thumb.jpg.ea6217ac1d11fd3f25523f4a2d6ed73e.jpg

I did photocopy all the predecimal variety stuff when I was into that, twenty years ago or so, and there is only a couple of hundred pages.

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4 hours ago, AardHawk said:

They failed because sales fell as they raised the cover price. £4 or so then must be £10 today. I know I stopped buying it a couple of years previously because of the price. Content was crap as well.  

That explains why there's no Coin Monthly magazines for that later era, currently on offer. Very few were bought. 

Pretty obvious when you think about it. Irrespective of price, sales must have been dropping like a stone anyway, for them to abruptly cease publication. Hence the lack of availability now.  

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5 hours ago, AardHawk said:

They failed because sales fell as they raised the cover price. £4 or so then must be £10 today. I know I stopped buying it a couple of years previously because of the price. Content was crap as well.  

A lot of publishing companies failed about this time , the economic effects of the massive recession in the early nineties and a failure to invest in new tec to make the business more profitable .

In the end it was lack of interest in the product from the public that caused the demise so we only have ourselves to blame

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Anyone remember the coin weekly ?

It was breifly around in a comic like format - I have never seen any copies for years

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17 hours ago, AardHawk said:

I have digitised all the Decimal content for my own use only. Theres not that much actually.

1089694820_CoinMonthlyDecimalContents_V04_small.thumb.jpg.ea6217ac1d11fd3f25523f4a2d6ed73e.jpg

I did photocopy all the predecimal variety stuff when I was into that, twenty years ago or so, and there is only a couple of hundred pages.

Anyone spot a familiar name against "Readers' Comments" for January 1970? I wonder...

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23 minutes ago, Peckris 2 said:

Anyone spot a familiar name against "Readers' Comments" for January 1970? I wonder...

Here is the letter in full from the January 1970 edition, a copy of which I'm now the proud owner. Just need February and April for a full 1970 set now:-

Quote

 

50p VARIETIES

Dear Sir,

With regard to the 50p piece, may I put on record the fact that I have come across at least two varieties already. The difference is easily distinguishable by examining the upright of the T in ELIZABETH. In one case it points just to the left of the apex. In the other case it points quite a bit to the right of the apex. (In fact the whole word is in a different position but the letter T is easiest for reference purposes). I have not as yet been able to detect which is the scarcer (if either), but no doubt some other reader of Coin Monthly can.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              C.D.Cooke, Manchester 23

 

 

Colin Cooke alright.       

 

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