Nearly forty years ago, I started my interest in Modern Dime Size Silver Coins of the World, and
put together a typeset of 18 mm silver coins from countries around the world.
The dates started with the issues of Queen Victoria and ended with the last circulating
silver coins of this size - 1970 Netherlands Antilles, minted in Holland.
Several years later, I enlarge the series to include 17mm - 19mm, all dates, mintmarks, assay initals and
fineness arranged by date order within mints.
The collection will never be completed, unless taken over by an institution or individual with unlimited time
plus some wealth and great fortitude, but the book is in its final Edition as prices are not included.
So many changes take place in the market place, the reader is referred to the current large priced catalogs
issued by Krause Publications.
The manuscript was reworked many time: hand printed, AppleWriter, WordStar, MSword, Adobe PageMaker and finally Acrobat. A laser printed copy was donated to The American Numismatic Society Library and the author has the other original copy. In 2002 a CD-rom was burned with a few copies for numismatic friends and a few copies sold at my local coin clubs.
In 2003 an improved disc was created and copies were presented to the American Numismatic Association, Numismatic International, Numismatic Literary Guild and others. The author has, with this new Edition, had the text edited by a numismatic friend. The photo frames were improved with Abobe PhotoShop, but not the coins. Now in book form it is available to the numismatic community as the
2009 Edition.
Encyclopedia of Small Silver Coins - Introduction
The author – Roger deWardt Lane, has published Encyclopedia of Small Silver Coins – in two-printed versions, hardbound and soft cover. The anthology and catalog of Modern Dime Size Silver Coins of the World with Footnotes to History has been in preparation for many years. The publication was expanded with many details of this limited series of small silver coins of the world from Queen Victoria (c. mid- 1850's) to 1970. There are interesting small stories with historical context, of these miniature pieces of art. Over 1000 coin illustrations have been enlarged four times for ease of viewing.
These coins had a monetary value of less than ten cents, when the value of silver was for a hundred years about fifty cents to the ounce. Many empires and nations issued on an annual basis millions of these little miniature silver pieces as subsidiary coinage for their population. Except during times of crisis or war, when species stopped being struck or were hoarded, everywhere people traveled they received these coins in change. Many found their way to the States, only to be saved as mementos or souvenirs of the trip and miss the melting pot. Some eventually reached the numismatic market place. These factors have combined to make these coins available in our time at reasonable prices, rare types excepted.
When this work was first started, the only date listings originally available were in national coin catalogs of the major countries; United States, England and British Colonies, France, Austria, Russia and China and a few others. Around the time of the first drafts, many small country listings and catalogs were issued. In the early 1960-70's, they became the date checklist for the coins added to the collection of the author. It took many years to research, to transcribe the inscriptions, translate the initials of names, titles, mintmarks, assay initials or marks, and foreign legends, then to find their English translations and expand the text with historical footnotes.
Coin prices are not included, since world economic and political conditions as well as collector interest constantly change the values. The easiest way to find a value of a coin in several condition grades is to make use of the Standard Catalog Series, issued by Krause Publications. In the mid-1960's computer technology became available on small PC's; so the coin images were scanned in grayscale [they look like silver] with the files stored on removable disks. The software used, progressed from Apple to IBM, WordStar to MSword. The early printed pages were produced in Adobe PageMaker, later to be exported to Acrobat, which has been uploaded to the printer for these editions. The printed versions, each 600 pages are organized in 101 country chapters with over a thousand coin pictures and a like number of century old clip art pictures taken from original history and travel books, which fill the pages with related photos, from Afghanistan to Yemen.
Mint Cities are arranged within countries. See the list from the book.
As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, look at the preview pages noted above and others offered on the publisher's site – www.lulu.com and remember the other famous numismatic quote – Buy the book before the coin. Both editions are available thru the Internet and the softcover edition may be ordered through your local favorite bookshop or http://stores.lulu.com/dewardt.
Roger deWardt Lane, Hollywood, Florida.
