Old to New - Book Review

Looking behind the scenes I noticed that someone searching for Isle of Man information was directed to my postings on British Commomwealth coin catalogs. While I'm pleased to be getting visitors, I realized that my comments were all directed towards British Royal Mint issue coinage. We never really touched on the Pobjoy Mint island issues, so here goes.

In the 1970's and again in the 1990's Pobjoy Mint released a few catalogs of their coins produced for British Commonwealth nations. The only ones I have access to are the 1977 and 1979 books for Isle of Man Coins and Tokens, and the 1999 Encyclopedia of Gibraltar Coins 1988-1999 by Taya Pobjoy. If you collect Pobjoy issues for these countries you may enjoy these books, but most of the information they compiled has been worked into the Standard Catalog of World Coins 20th Century editon by now.

Regarding the Channel Islands, there is also a an excellent book, which goes back to ancient times, covers tokens, banknotes and modern coinage as well. It's a product of Spink & Son from 1984 titled Currencies of the Anglo-Norman Isles by A.L.T. McCammon. The listings for Guernsey and Jersey coins are good, and include blow up shots of varieties that would prove helpful to collectors. Coin coverage for these countries however, is limited to British Royal Mint issues.