Is this publication worth acquiring?

[Paulus]

Keen for knowledge on exactly my era, worth owning?

THE MILLED COINAGE OF ENGLAND FROM 1660 - 1946 SPINK 1950

[Rob]

Keen for knowledge on exactly my era, worth owning?

THE MILLED COINAGE OF ENGLAND FROM 1660 - 1946 SPINK 1950

All books are worth acquiring because you frequently find a snippet of information that isn't written elsewhere. The bulk of most books on a subject will be common to nearly all, but the minutiae in each text often reveals a clearer picture when considered in aggregate.

[Paulus]

Keen for knowledge on exactly my era, worth owning?

THE MILLED COINAGE OF ENGLAND FROM 1660 - 1946 SPINK 1950

All books are worth acquiring because you frequently find a snippet of information that isn't written elsewhere. The bulk of most books on a subject will be common to nearly all, but the minutiae in each text often reveals a clearer picture when considered in aggregate.

Thanks Rob, I will get it

[Paulus]

Keen for knowledge on exactly my era, worth owning?

THE MILLED COINAGE OF ENGLAND FROM 1660 - 1946 SPINK 1950

For anyone else interested, this book is available here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330436945692?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2648#ht_500wt_1413

[Peckris]

Keen for knowledge on exactly my era, worth owning?

THE MILLED COINAGE OF ENGLAND FROM 1660 - 1946 SPINK 1950

For anyone else interested, this book is available here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330436945692?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2648#ht_500wt_1413

Definitely of interest, I would say. I have their earlier book, The Milled Silver Coinage of England published in 1925 and clearly a forerunner of ESC. At that time Spink were in Piccadilly, though I see they had moved to King Street postwar. My book gives the view that Edward VII coins were already regarded as scarce by 1925, but also that there were no scarcities as yet for George V !

The strange thing is that this seller has multiple copies. A photocopied reproduction perhaps? Not sure otherwise how he could have so many, unless he managed to get access to a Spink basement clearout.

[VickySilver]

Uhh, well I seem to have just too many old Spink/Seaby cats laying about, and my 3 yr. old son has found them most useful as missiles or steps to get where he ought not....

Seriously, I think the value is a bit limited, save to a bibliophile (all apologies, Rob) although they make for an interesting glance-over.

[Rob]

Uhh, well I seem to have just too many old Spink/Seaby cats laying about, and my 3 yr. old son has found them most useful as missiles or steps to get where he ought not....

Seriously, I think the value is a bit limited, save to a bibliophile (all apologies, Rob) although they make for an interesting glance-over.

That's it though. Most of the contents are inevitably duplicated because books that cover the same topic must inevitably do so, but only after reading a book can you safely say there isn't anything new and at that point rationalise the library.

[Peckris]

The fascinating thing about the 1925 edition is that it's a true sale catalogue. The introduction reads :

Quite recently we purchased the collection of milled coins of the late Mr A Wallis, who had studied the series with very great care. It would have been a misfortune to waste the information to be obtained from his mss. and large collection. Consequently, whilst offering the pieces for sale, we are trying to supply the long felt need of an up to date list of the series, especially as far as busts are concerned, differentiating between them and numbering them. We have found it quite impossible to notice all the slight variations and dies noted by Mr Wallis, giving only most interesting. We have put only the most important varieties in the left hand column.

This is fascinating on several levels - 1. that they were able to offer the entire milled series for sale, 2. that before this publication there wasn't a complete list of busts and varieties for the milled series, and 3. that Spink determined what were "important varieties", didn't publish the remainder, leaving it open for collectors to discover ("rediscover") them ever since. The book is obviously the template for ESC who must have used Spink's choice of varieties as the foundation of their own publication