BOOK REVIEW: NEW ZEALAND HISTORY NOTED

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V13 2010 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 13, Number 45, November 7, 2010, Article 5

Last week we published an announcement for Rob Pepping's new book on Reserve bank of New Zealand Notes. As it happens, Kerry Rodgers just published a review of the book in the November 2010 issue of Australasian Coin & Banknote Magazine. Publisher John Mulhall kindly granted permission to reprint portions of the review here in The E-Sylum. Below are a few excerpts. Thanks! -Editor

ANY collector who scores a copy of Robert Pepping's new, privately published, 243 pp. book in their Christmas stocking has many happy hours of summer reading to look forward to. This volume is set to become the indispensable reference on New Zealand post-1933 paper issues although its appeal should be far broader than that. You don't have to collect Kiwi currency to appreciate its contents. The breadth of information it provides is an invaluable reference for all banknote students and collectors.

The book is an in-depth account of the notes issued by New Zealand's central bank (RBNZ) from the 1930s to the present day. Robert presents his content in a digestible and entertaining manner. It can be read from cover to cover but is also well-suited for gently dipping into.

The fourteen chapters include: first and second issue RBNZ notes, decimal currency, note printing in NZ, the end of rag paper and the arrival of plastic, processing circulation notes, counterfeits, commemoratives, emergency issues, replacements, and note signatories.

Throughout, Robert provides packages of facts and figures boxed-out from the main text. These are a useful adjunct in that they amplify, supplement or illustrate a chapter's content. Nonetheless they can be skipped in a first reading of the book. Examples include the life expectancies anticipated by the RBNZ for their first note issue, details of second issue specimens, and the reaction by Alf's Imperial Army to Governor Brash's proposal to excise Her Majesty from New Zealand notes.

Readers who wish to point out to their resident Christmas Elf where they can purchase a copy, could point them to Robert Pepping at the book's website: http://nzhnoted.weebly.com; or e-mail: nzhnoted@gmail.com; or snail-mail: c/- Sacred Heart College, 250West Tamaki Rd, Glendowie, 1071, Auckland, New Zealand.

Just ask for New Zealand History Noted. Cost is A$70.00 plus A$8.00 p&p assuming current exchange rates hold. It is excellent value for money and I say this despite not owning one New Zealand note.

The changeover to decimal currency is deservedly given detailed coverage, as is the later Aussie connection with the change to polymer. One area that could have been usefully expanded is that of replacement notes, with a fuller explanation provided as to how these are utilised at different stages of the printing process.

The section on counterfeits and forgers may well prove new info for some readers. It is an area that the RBNZ says little about. They don't wish to encourage competition.

The book is profusely illustrated with images Robert has tapped from numerous sources. Top of the list is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand who gave him a fairly free run of their archives. Not far behind are Noble Numismatics, a host of newspapers, security printers, libraries, public archives and individuals, including the late Sir Ed Hilary. The result is the most comprehensive set of images yet assembled related to New Zealand's predecimal and decimal note history.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: NEW BOOK: NEW ZEALAND HISTORY NOTED (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n44a06.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor