Coin Book Reviews

2005 Standard Catalog of World Coins by Krause

The Telephone Book
First published in 1972, as a single volume, "Krause" as it is usually called grew to the size of a telephone directory, and was sometimes called the "Coin Dealers Bible". Originally covering world coins from about the mid 19th century, the original volume expanded so much, it has now been split into two volumes each covering one century, plus a further two volumes each covering a preceding century.

The 2005 Edition
Our copy of the 2005 (3rd) edition contains 1,360 pages, over 40,000 full size illustrations, and we estimate over 200,000 different coins listed, each in up to four different grades of preservation. Includes almost every known coin since 1601 to 1700.
Contents
It is worth reading the opening sections of the catalogue before starting to use it. These include Country Index, Foreign Exchange Tables, User's Guide which gives a lot of practical advice on identifying coins, Coin Sizing Chart, International Numerics, Instant Identifier, Hejira Date Conversion Chart, Coin Denominations List, Grading Chart, Silver Bullion Chart, Gold & Platinum Bullion Chart, Mint Index, Mint Data, Monograms and Eastern Mint Names. These sections are followed by the main listings section of the book. There are two photographs of almost every coin type, showing the obverse and reverse sides full size. This makes it easy to find the right coin by size, although it does make listings for small coins more difficult to work with, however this is a minor quibble as the book would be even larger if it had to include a larger photograph of each coin. Each country has a brief but very useful and informative demographic and historical summary before its coin listings.

Price
$70 US / £45 UK

Other Krause Publications
There is also a "World Gold Coins" which covers 1601 to date, as a bonus it also includes platinum and palladium coins. Although most of the information is included in the general catalogues, we find it pays us to have this book also, even though it carries a $100 price tag.

KM#
Some pages on our site may refer to KM numbers. These are the reference numbers in the relevant Krause Catalogue.

A Note to Krause
If you fancy sending us review copies of your publications we will be happy to review them here!