Updated 05/31/2009

Bibliography and Links

Books

British Silver Coins Since 1816, Peter J. Davies (1st Edition, 1982, Peter J. Davies).  Described as "A Definitive Study Cataloguing Every Known Date, Type and Variety," this book indeed is a must for the British silver collector.  Much painstaking effort is put into this fabulous book, including identification photographs of the many varieties.

Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins 1066 to Date, R. Lobel, M. Davidson, A. Hailstone and E. Calligas (Standard Catalogue Publishers Ltd./Krause).  There are several editions, the last being 2000.  Informative, detailed and fun to read.  The pricing is now obsolete, unfortunately.

Coins of England and the United Kingdom (Spink). Published annually in Great Britain (formerly by Seaby).  Also a good reference work.  The British dealers swear by the prices it contains.  They are, of course, the highest prices found in any annual guide.  I think the price quotes are frequently a bit optimistic, but it's nice to dream.

Collectors' Coins GB, Chris Henry Perkins (formerly by R.J. Marles).  Published annually in Great Britain.  This is a marvelous price guide, now taken over and improved substantially by Chris at Predecimal.com.  It has prices from George III coinage onwards for all coin types through gold.  There are still lots of bits of trivia interspersed through the book reminiscent of the old Marles guides.

The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain, Michael J. Freeman (2nd Edition, 1985, Barrie and Jenkins).  This is an indispensable book for bronze coin collectors.  It covers bronze pennies, halfpennies, farthings, decimal coinage through 1983 and patterns and trial strikes.

The British Bronze Penny 1860-1970, Michael Gouby (Michael Coins Publications, London).  This is a must-read for the bronze penny enthusiast.  There are detailed descriptions of many of the well known and lesser known variations of the dates, with excellent B&W photographs and descriptions distinguishing them.  It is a great companion to Freeman's book.  Mr. Gouby owns a coin shop in London.

The British Bronze Coinage 1860-1869, Michael Gouby (Michael Coins Publications, London).  This is a lengthy research paper dealing with the bronze coinage of the period, including estimates on how many coins of each type were minted and where.  There are some surprising findings reported here I have never seen published elsewhere.  The last page of the book is good for a laugh. 

English Silver Coinage since 1649, P. Alan Rayner (5th Edition, 1992, Seaby).  This is another must for silver coin collecting.  Its strength is classifying rarities at high grades for every date.

British Coins Market Values.  Published annually in Great Britain.  A price guide to British Coins, also with some good information.

Collecting Coins for Pleasure and Profit (Krause), Betterway Publications.

The Coin Yearbook.  Published annually in Great Britain.

The Coin Collector's Survival Manual (Travers), 3rd Edition.  Bonus Books Inc.  It doesn't focus on British coins, but it is still a must-read.  Discusses some of the more insidious practices of some dealers.  Raises awareness of counterfeits.

Standard Catalog of World Coins (Krause).  20th Century edition published annually.  19th Century edition published less often.  This book is used by most American dealers who sell foreign coins. The prices do not keep up with market, but it is a good starting point.  It has excellent country identifier pages.

Websites

www.colincooke.com.  The farthing section of this website has excellent descriptions of the many farthing varieties that exist.

http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/coins.html  (Tony Clayton).  This is an outstanding site compiling many hours of research and writing.  I've learned a lot from it.  Thanks to Tony for his permission to post the link here.

http://aboutfarthings.co.uk (Colin G.).  Colin has put together a tremendous amount of good research into this site.  In my opinion, this has become the definitive site for farthing varieties.  There are pictures showing how each is identified.  Thanks to Colin for giving me permission to post the link.

http://coinsgb.com (Huseyin Sulo, aka Hussulo).  Hundreds of pages of information to help you identify your British coins.  This continues to be a work in progress, so check with this site frequently for new information!