Collecting before Krause

LochNESS

Does anyone know (or dare I ask, remember) what the hobby was like prior to Krause catalogs?

Were "world" collectors mostly Ancient- and Europe-centric?

I imagine there was much less OFEC collecting, as international commerce was less commonplace. Pre-WWII, many island nations were still pre-colonization. Not as many "territories" in the South Pacific, I think.

WillieBoyd2

I started collecting in 1964.

Around that time I bought an edition of A Catalog of Modern World Coins by R. S. Yeoman.

I used the Yeoman book to keep track of the collection.

It was a book with illustrations and prices for world coins from around 1850 to 1964.

Inflation has made the values obsolete, but the illustrations still help in identifying coins.

JCMhouston

Back in the day I used specialist books, English Silver Coins (ESC), Coins of England, and kept all the major catalogs I could get.

mrpotatoheadd

I used the Yeoman catalogs, too.

Sapyx

The world coin boom really kicked off in the 1960s. The two Yeoman books (Modern World Coins 1850-1964 and Current Coins of the World 1964-present) covered much the same time period as the earliest edition Krauses. For the period 1750-1850, there was the Craig catalogue (Coins of the World). These three books made it possible, really for the first time, for the average collector anywhere in the world to become an OFEC collector. The numbering systems from these two books are still in use by Krause for some countries, hence their KM/Y and KM/C numbers.

Regional catalogues seemed to be easier to find, too. Here in Australia, for example, one of the producers of the local coin catalogues in the early 1980s tacked New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea coins onto the end of their Australian coin catalogue, making it "Australasian".

Gazza

Collectors came before krause, not Krause making collectors. There would have needed to be a solid collector base out there before the printing of Krause would become viable.

MichaelS

Long before Krause...

Google offers the entire book as a PDF for free.

-Mike

rec78

<< <i>Collectors came before krause, not Krause making collectors. There would have needed to be a solid collector base out there before the printing of Krause would become viable. >>



A statement that i both agree with and dis-agree with.

There was a collector base, but not much of one. I acquired some world coins right before the first publishing of Krause, knowing that the catalog would most likely increase the collector base and awareness and made out quite handily. The first edition provided much needed info on individual issues. Most of the other available references only listed by type, thus Krause greatly increased the scope by listing issues by date.
Krause did make collectors and made the collecting of world coins much more interesting. Most world coin collectors, before Krause(1973 I believe), collected only by type.

The two Yeoman books (Modern World Coins 1850-1964 and Current Coins of the World 1964-present) covered much the same time period as the earliest edition Krauses. For the period 1750-1850, there was the Craig catalogue (Coins of the World). These three books made it possible, really for the first time, for the average collector anywhere in the world to become an OFEC collector. The numbering systems from these two books are still in use by Krause for some countries, hence their KM/Y and KM/C numbers.

I used these three references also(and I still have them!), but they leave a lot to be desired.

Bob

jfoot13

It was actually pretty nice LOL you could buy and sell coins that appealed to you and they were everywhere. If you liked the coin better than your money you purchased it and proceeded to aquire information about your new treasure and it's history, now the first thing you do is look up the value in a book to see if you got a steal deal or screwed.... It seems more and more it's the love of the deal rather than love of the history that's the motivating factor

brg5658

I was born in 1979, so I guess Krause is older than me.

HoledandCreative

The "Brown Book" was the book to have if you collected foreign coins in the early 60s. But it was just type. If you collected everything you got your hands on, you didn't know what existed as far as dates and mintmarks. The greatest advance for the hobby, for me anyway, was when the Harris books came onto the scene in 1964 or 1965. Great checklists for modern European and Latin America coins by date & mintmark. There was Jaeger for German after 1871, my favorite checklist. A lot of great memories. My first major find in a "junk box" was the Hong Kong Cent. It was VF or so.

ColinCMR

Catalogs and books can act to attract collectors and specific items

LochNESS

So, what I'm hearing overall is that before the mega huge catalogs like Krause (OK, and Yeoman and Craig...) the "World" coin collecting scene was pretty loose. Some folks had checklists and regional publications but mostly it was items which crossed your path by chance. If you liked it, you bought it and enjoyed it. If you didn't fancy it, you passed on it. There was less concern for OFEC and "hole filling" as nobody really knew the extent of die varieties and mint mark varieties, etc. etc.

I think we all agree that the internet had a similarly huge effect on the hobby. Perhaps even bigger in scope.

Anyone care to wager what the next mega influencer will be?

Gazza

<< <i>So, what I'm hearing overall is that before the mega huge catalogs like Krause (OK, and Yeoman and Craig...) the "World" coin collecting scene was pretty loose. Some folks had checklists and regional publications but mostly it was items which crossed your path by chance. If you liked it, you bought it and enjoyed it. If you didn't fancy it, you passed on it. There was less concern for OFEC and "hole filling" as nobody really knew the extent of die varieties and mint mark varieties, etc. etc.

I think we all agree that the internet had a similarly huge effect on the hobby. Perhaps even bigger in scope.

Anyone care to wager what the next mega influencer will be? >>



There have been specialist books for a couple of hundred years. You just bought the books you needed for your particular branch of collecting. I don't collect world coins so I've never had a use for Krause.

olmanjon

Never thought about this question until today. I decided to go back through my books and see what I had. I was introduced to coin collecting in 1959 when a friend of my fathers gave me a 1956 Guide Book of U.S. coins by Yeoman. Seven years later I got into foreign collecting and bought the first edition of Coins of the World by Craig which was published in 1966. I then purchased the 6th edition of A Catalog of Modern World Coins by Yeoman in 1965. Then the 9th edtion. I then purchased the first edition of Krause in 1972. The cost was $10 and covered 261 countries-800 pages-30,000 coins listed by date and 15,000 photographs. Have since then updated 4-5 times with 2011 the last update on the computer. Computer is nice but is still not as nice as having the actual catalog in your hand to browse. Looks like it is time to update again. Prices are starting to leave me behind.
Olmanjon

LochNESS

<< <i>There have been specialist books for a couple of hundred years. You just bought the books you needed for your particular branch of collecting. I don't collect world coins so I've never had a use for Krause. >>


Not with that kind of widespread circulation and longevity. There have been books since the days of the bible but I posit Krause had the biggest influence in forming the "world coin collecting" hobby as we know it today. Case in point, micronations weren't really popular until Krause released their first edition of the "Unusual" catalog. Now that it's been out for a while, you suddenly have a plethora of unofficial strikes and patterns going for $30 and up on eBay every day of the week with multiple bids.

Gazza

<< <i>

<< <i>There have been specialist books for a couple of hundred years. You just bought the books you needed for your particular branch of collecting. I don't collect world coins so I've never had a use for Krause. >>


Not with that kind of widespread circulation and longevity. There have been books since the days of the bible but I posit Krause had the biggest influence in forming the "world coin collecting" hobby as we know it today. Case in point, micronations weren't really popular until Krause released their first edition of the "Unusual" catalog. Now that it's been out for a while, you suddenly have a plethora of unofficial strikes and patterns going for $30 and up on eBay every day of the week with multiple bids. >>



You need to look wider than just the US collector market. Us foreign types have been getting along perfectly OK without Krause. I would suggest that the internet has had far more effect on the issuing of unofficial strikes and patterns than Krause. Places like Pobjoy on the Isle of Man have been turning this stuff out by the ton long before Krause came along.

RobP

If you need evidence that there was life before Krause, here it is. It predates the USA and coupled with the British collections of the Earl of Pembroke and Archbishp Sharp etc it is safe to assume that there were collectors at least as far back as the 1600s, but almost certainly earlier. The Snelling pictured below was produced in sections during the 1760s, but wasn't the first reference book on coins.

LochNESS

<< <i>You need to look wider than just the US collector market ... ... If you need evidence that there was life before Krause, here it is >>


Try reading the OP again. I actually suggested that "world" collecting was Europe-centric, so obviously I am looking wider than just the US collector market ...
I never insinuated that there was no life before Krause, rather the contrary. I specifically inquired about it ...


<< <i>Does anyone know (or dare I ask, remember) what the hobby was like prior to Krause catalogs?
Were "world" collectors mostly Ancient- and Europe-centric?
I imagine there was much less OFEC collecting, as international commerce was less commonplace. Pre-WWII, many island nations were still pre-colonization. Not as many "territories" in the South Pacific, I think. >>


I appreciate the effort from everyone who posted older books and catalogs which pre-date Krause. I'm not sure if that's the kind of response I was hoping for when I started this thread, but I guess it's the most logical. And perhaps the only one possible. I don't know ... I was trying to imagine what life was like for the average "world" collector 80-100 years ago and/or 3-4 generations ago.