There is something that I have been wondering, that is attempting to build a numismatic library. Catalogues are good but when you look at the price tag, some of them can go insane amount. This isn't like the US, where various catalogues are printed out yearly at a huge volume. Second hand books go even cheaper. With some of the books that I have, some of them can go lower than 1000 prints, if not, one as low as 300 copies!

I have been fortunate to be a library that had a decent amount of numismatics catalogues. It did make me wonder though why it is not possible to make such references into e-catalogues. Now let's put the copyright issues aside, I'm talking about some old catalogues that are at least 20-30 years old or older. It is indeed nice to find some old data to see how much coin prices have risen since then.

I know that once a copy is downloaded into a PC, it just remains there forever. If there is a type of software that only allows it to be opened from a period of time and self-expires and limits printing abilities, I wonder about the feasibility of such.

Bad idea?

I'm not sure about the legality of that, unless one acquires permission from the publisher or author, but I agree, it would be nice to have a way to electronically view some of these things, but at the same time, it would be nice to make sure the author gets his/her fair share for all the work and research that went into it. I'd be less interested in the pricing info, as I know that will be WAYYYYY off. I know there are some catalogs in the public domain if you are looking into ancients. I recently found a handful in my quest to gain more knowledge in that area. I haven't had the time to read them yet, but I've got them there for that rainy day.

There have been a number of projects to do this type of e-publishing. Most seem to stop because the costs are high and the projects are labor intensive and there doesn't seem to be that great a market. I have a great CD with early releases of the Numismatist in Adobe format. Very nice project. Well done and fun to scan through. I'm not sure that the project was successful financially. I'd bet, in fact, that it was a huge amount of work with little or no profit for the workers.

This is the closest thing I have ever found to what you are talking about gx - Project Gutenberg

There are some sites that put up links to older numismatic works in PDF/Adobe format, works such as:

- The coin collector's manual, Vol 1, (1853) Humphreys, Henry Noel, 1810-1879

- The coin collector's manual, Vol 2, (1853) Humphreys, Henry Noel, 1810-1879

- An Arrangement of Provincial Coins, Tokens, and Medalets issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies…By James Conder- 1798

- Catalogue of the Stenz Collection of Modern Coins, Medals, and Tokens
By Georg Stenz Published 1875.

- Dye's Coin Encyclopedia, A Complete Illustrated History of the Coins of the World. JOHN S. DYE,1883.

- The Coins of the Ancient Britons. Arranged and Described by John Evans.-1890

- The Encyclopedia of Gold and Silver Coins of the World From A.D. 1885 Back to B.C. 700. By A.M. Smith.-1886

- Tradesmen's Tokens, Current in London and Its Vicinity Between the Years 1648 and 1672 By John Yonge Akerman Published 1849.

- Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal Engravers, Mint Masters and C. Ancient to Modern, with reference to their works B.C. 500-A.D. 1900. VOL III, by L. Forrer..1894

- Coins, Medals, and Seals, Ancient and Modern- Illustrated and Described By William Cowper Prime Published 1861 Harper & brothers.

- Provincial Copper Coins or Tokens Issued Between the Years 1787-1796- Birmingham.

- The Descriptive Hand-Book of English Coins. From the Norman Conquest to The Present Reign. By Llewellynn Jewitt. 1879

- Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries, in Yorkshire By William Boyne. 1858.

- Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland By William Boyne Published 1891.

- Collectors' Coins Great Britain 32nd Edition 2005

- The coinage of Ireland in copper, tin and pewter, 1460-1826 By Nelson Philip.(1905)

This is really just a sample of whats out there. As long as the "books" are in the public domain, they have no qualms about preserving them for the masses.
I am on the lap-top right now and the links are on the desktop but if anyone is interested, I can post the links or send off an e-mail tomorrow. If you want the download e-mailed to you, PM me.
Some of the downloads are long, being 500 "pages." (44 MB)

Thank you very much for taking the time to post these links!

Here are the links. They are all working. If you have a problem, let me know.
Jim

- The coin collector's manual, Vol 1, (1853) Humphreys, Henry Noel, 1810-1879

- The coin collector's manual, Vol 2, (1853) Humphreys, Henry Noel, 1810-1879

- An Arrangement of Provincial Coins, Tokens, and Medalets issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies… By James Conder- 1798

- Catalogue of the Stenz Collection of Modern Coins, Medals, and Tokens

By Georg Stenz Published 1875.

- Dye's Coin Encyclopedia, A Complete Illustrated History of the Coins of the World. JOHN S. DYE,1883.

- The Coins of the Ancient Britons. Arranged and Described by John Evans.-1890

- The Encyclopedia of Gold and Silver Coins of the World From A.D. 1885 Back to B.C. 700. By A.M. Smith.-1886

- Tradesmen's Tokens, Current in London and Its Vicinity Between the Years 1648 and 1672 By John Yonge Akerman Published 1849.

- Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal Engravers, Mint Masters and C. Ancient to Modern, with reference to their works B.C. 500-A.D. 1900. VOL III, by L. Forrer..1894. There are 7 volumes in this series. The link will bring you to them all.

- Coins, Medals, and Seals, Ancient and Modern - Illustrated and Described By William Cowper Prime Published 1861 Harper & brothers.

- Provincial Copper Coins or Tokens Issued Between the Years 1787-1796- Birmingham. Charles Pye.

- The Descriptive Hand-Book of English Coins. From the Norman Conquest to The Present Reign. By Llewellynn Jewitt. 1879

- Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries, in Yorkshire By William Boyne. 1858.


- Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland By William Boyne Published 1891.

- Collectors' Coins Great Britain 32nd Edition 2005

- The coinage of Ireland in copper, tin and pewter, 1460-1826 By Nelson Philip.(1905)

Here are some interesting numismatic links.
Wild Winds: Ancient Coins: Roman, Greek, Byzantine and Celtic Numismatic Reference for Attribution and Values
Digital Book Index
Digital Book Index: A different one.
This should keep you busy for awhile.
Jim.

Nice references there J.Cordeiro. Thanks for the input.
The problems with an electronic book on numismatics is the same as any electronic information. Just who pays for it? Who takes the time to post it? Note there are already similar sites as noted but just where does the profit come from? I just don't see why anyone would produce a book and then send it out on the internet free. This is the latest problem with songs and movies. Why pay for them when you can get them free. Movie producers, for instance, spend millions to make a movie ane then it is just downloaded free. The same thing with any book. Why do it? Of course contrary to that is the millions of web sites already in existance about everything and with no chance of making a profit from no sales at all. Many of these are bogus web sites and appear to be just someone having fun with erroneous facts and figures.
Another problem with an electronic book on coins is if it included prices, they would have to be or should be, modified continuously for changes. The price listings on the PCGS web site is modified continuously but is way off anyway. Such a book would have to be updated for every new release also for discriptions, values, mintages, compositions, etc. Again, who pays for all this information?
I know it will eventually happen but I sure would like to know how the individuals doing the work gets compensated.

Most of the books posted in the above post are over 100 years old. Some are newer, and the Rotographic one is from 2005 (it's supposed to entice you to buy the newest version). They are great as historical references, but I don't believe they will give much competition to anything else currently on the market.

Just carl, just not to disagree with you but if everything is based upon profit, this forum shouldn't exist from the first place. Anton does put in a fair amount of time and money and this generally applies for most forums that I can see so far. Yet we are not getting charged. But why do they do it? I guess because they encourage people to exchange infomation which I am very thankful of.

Hi Carl, your post concerns me because I don't think you understand what I am trying to say.

All the books that I have referenced, and the majority of the ones that are posted for free download are in the Public Domain and there are No Legal Restriction Of Use

This is probably due to there age.

The people who take the time to download this information are the same people who take and download all books that qualify for this no legal restriction on use. They realize that if no one takes the time to send it out into the world via internet, the world may very well lose these volumes of information.

It does not fall into the category of "bootlegging" as some of today's knock off movies and music do. There is literally no one left to realize a profit from these works.

Also, I would not be concerned with a coin value found in a book printed in the year 1884. It's not the value quoted that's important; it's the coins information itself, the research involved.

All too often as the years pass, older coin references are removed from the mainstream catalogs and placed in either a specialty catalog or just forgotten about completely.

Some of these literary works would have already turned to dust if it were not for such groups as Digital Book Index, Internet Archive and Google Book Search Beta

What you seem to be referring to about on-line books needing constant updating would be something like Numismaster.com

Subscribe to this service and you will have your up-dated coin stats, pictures and information on all the coins that Krause catalogs between 1801 and 2007, for a yearly fee of $149.99 American. They may also be adding 1701-1800 and Unusual World coins. I wonder how much more that will cost?

Now, where does that leave the coins from the 15^th century? Or how about the 14^th or the 13^th?

If we – I am talking about coin collectors Carl – do not start saving this information, there will be NO INFORMATION TO SAVE. It will cease to exist.

Now your misunderstanding me. I never mentioned forums or anything like web sites that exchange information, post information, trade information. I was referring to a publication being put on the internet when the purpose was to sell it as a publication. There are many things not done for profit of course and many that would never be done if no profit was obtained. Forums for coins are minimal compared to the numerous web sites all over the world about almost every subject imaginable. Your jumping to a conclusion that and apple is also an orange. This, and all coin web sites are completely different than a book I would assume. There is for example a free encyclopedia everyone uses. Of course this has basically eleminated the outdated hard covered ones we all had as kids. And rightfully so since the ones we had as books became outdated almost as fast as we used them.
Back to a coin book on the internet, my only concern is for the individuals that attempt to make such a book and have it published find it soon on the internet, they loose. Many will gain knowledge, but no incentive for that writer to go one with such publications. Again, nothing to do with the distribution of knowledge via a coin forum such as this.