Howard R. Engel of Richard Stockley Books in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, alerted me to an intriguing new numismatic-related book by Montreal-based author Paul Tawrell. It considers the role of money at 30,000 feet, so to speak, in the rise and fall of empires, including a timely treatment of the effects of pandemics, both past and present, on money through the ages. Here's some information from the book's web page. -Editor

"This title covers the History of Money and reflects upon Empires that had access to gold and silver to strike coins to increase their money supply, help trade, and pay for arms and mercenaries to project power. Empire status was assured by having a stable gold:silver ratio or paper notes backed by gold coin. The use of paper notes - first issued by the Song dynasty, in China c910, and Kublai Khan’s paper is covered in depth. Historically all paper notes (and debased coin) have become worthless - the question is how fast. It took 500 years for the silver Roman denarius coin to be debased.

"Diverse historic events relating to gold, silver, coining, money, mining, banking, financial panics, epidemics, black swans, and the survival/devolution of Empires are covered.

"I had planned to attend numismatic get-togethers to display my new title, but the pandemic has closed this venue. It took over 15 years to assemble the data to write this book.

"The book has 384 pages with over 4000 images and was printed, in duotone, on coated stock to give justice to the photographs of the coins. "

Here are some samples from the book's web page. -Editor