PREV ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
PREV FULL ISSUE
BOOK REVIEW: 100 GREATEST MODERN WORLD COINSOn July 21, 2020 Lou Golino published a review on CoinWeek of the Whitman book 100 Greatest Modern World Coins by Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker. Here's a short excerpt - see the complete article online. -Editor
In choosing their 100 greatest world coins of the 20th century, the authors build on the criteria set forth in the first Whitman book in the "100 Greatest” series, Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth’s 100 Greatest U.S. Coins, which were: rarity, value, quality, popularity, beauty and history. But unlike the coins of the earlier volume that form a homogenous group, the much more diverse group of coins issued around the world since 1901 required a different set of criteria for the authors, which are: rarity; innovation (such as new metal alloys, new motifs, and coinage reforms); coin sets (a number of the greatest world coins include special coin sets or were part of sets); oddities and emergency issues, such as coins issued just before a leader was overthrown; and auction and market values. Emphasis on Rarity The authors acknowledge that the coins that made their list include a large number that are so rare and valuable that they are well beyond the means of most collectors – or are even impossible to own for various reasons. In fact, only 23% of the coins discussed here are valued under $10,000, but Charles and Hubert do include some issues that any collector can afford, such as #100, the 1999 euro coin set, and a couple of modern bullion issues, such as #57, the 1967 South African gold Krugerrand and #66, the 1979 Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, the first two modern world gold bullion coins. The book covers the rarest and most numismatically significant issues from countries around the world that are, in many cases, not well known outside the country where they were issued. Others are well known to those who collect coins of specific countries, such as #7, the Proof version of the 1930 Melbourne Penny from Australia, which is considered the "King of Australian Coins”, or #1, the 1911 Canada Silver Dollar Pattern, of which only two exist and only one of them is in private hands.
The article includes an interesting discussion of criteria for classifying a coin as modern, and criteria for considering a modern coin as one of the greatest. Date of manufacture? Process of manufacture? Rarity, value, quality, popularity? Beauty, history, innovation, oddity, market value? See the article for an overview, but read the book to see the results. -Editor
To read the complete article, see:
To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
THE BOOK BAZARREWayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|