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Old November 6th 08, 03:20 AM posted to rec.collecting.paper-money
Owen Linzmayer[_2_]
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Posts: 28
Default Sweden 50 Kronor 2004 not in "Pick" yet?

You want a reason? Here's my review of the Standard Catalog of World
Paper Money, Modern Issues (14th edition) which recently appeared in
the IBNS Journal 47.3:

Almost everything I wrote in my review (46.3 p55) of the previous
edition also applies to the recently published 14th edition of the
Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Volume III: Modern Issues (US
$55, Krause Publications, ISBN 0-89689-632-3). As I said last year,
“if you collect modern banknotes, you must own [this book] … there is
no other omnibus catalog that covers post-1960 issues in such detail.
However, anyone who spends more than a few minutes examining the SCWPM
soon discovers its many flaws.” Even the frontmatter of the new
edition contains this telling caveat: “The editors and publisher make
no claim to absolute completeness, just as they acknowledge that some
errors and pricing inequities will appear.” Talk about an
understatement.
Many errors I had spotted in previous editions—such as incorrect
headings and swapped images—have been fixed, yet new ones have cropped
up. For example, Bangladesh’s 2-taka note (P6C) has disappeared
completely, and a spot check of some prices reveals “inequities,” to
say the least. For example, Latvia’s new 100-lat note dated 2006 (P53)
is listed at US$125 in UNC, but its face value is presently US$222.
The book’s foreign exchange table lists the correct official rate of
0.45 lat to the dollar, so what’s the excuse for this outlandishly low
value?
In addition to new notes listed at less than face value, there are
also notes listed at prices far exceeding what dealers are actually
charging. For example, Bhutan’s 100-ngultrum note dated 2006 (P32) is
listed at US$17.50, yet it’s commonly available on eBay for US$6. I
should also mention that this note is listed as “ND (2005)” when in
fact it’s clearly dated “SERIES 2006” on the front. Obvious material
errors such as this call into question the reliability of everything
in the catalog.
As for completeness, forget about it. Despite a copyright date of 2008
and the promise of covering modern issues from “1961-Present,” the
14th edition is far behind the times. Given publishing lead times,
it’s no surprise that the catalog doesn’t mention any notes dated
2008, but in light of the fact that at least 70 countries issued
revised notes last year, it’s disappointing to find that only 14
countries have listings of notes dated 2007. Even worse is that
there’s no mention of major new notes—all deserving of their own Pick
numbers*—issued in 2006 by Bangladesh, Brunei, the Dominican Republic,
Northern Ireland, Peru, Romania, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Uganda,
and Uruguay, to name a handful. Also missing are new notes issued in
2005 by Thailand, Turkmenistan, and Vanuatu. The worst example I found
is the lack of a listing for Rwanda’s 5,000-franc note issued four
years ago in June of 2004. These omissions are especially egregious
because these issues were extensively reported and documented with
images in the “New Notes” section of the IBNS Journal and Inside IBNS
over the course of the past two years, the Rwanda note even having
been assigned a Pick number by the catalog’s editor.
Thirty countries have listings of notes that have been assigned brand-
new Pick numbers, and there are many more new variety letters assigned
to old notes with new dates and/or signature combinations.
Unfortunately, the reviled practice of reassigning Pick numbers has
been exercised in some instances, which will cause confusion and
consternation in the collecting community. Furthermore, Krause
continues to omit many signature tables even in cases where the note
descriptions make specific references to signatures either by number
or name. How are readers supposed to distinguish between note
varieties without the benefit of tables that illustrate the
differences? Forget about relying upon images of the new notes
themselves. Only five—yes, that’s right, five—newly listed notes are
illustrated. Colorful designs are an inherent attraction of banknotes,
so readers deserve images of new notes, not just textual descriptions
of same.
The most significant change to the new edition of the SCWPM is the
inclusion of a DVD containing a PDF (Portable Document Format) file of
the entire catalog. Using the free Adobe Reader program (available for
Windows, Mac OS X, and many other operating systems), you can now
search the catalog for words of interest, which is great if you want
to quickly find notes produced by a particular printer or on polymer
substrate, for example. This new search capability is a welcome
addition, but it’s not perfect. Because the PDF is a verbatim copy of
the catalog, you can find only words that appear in the printed
catalog. So a search for “airplane,” for example, will miss notes that
depict planes but don’t mention them in their listings. On the plus
side, to take advantage of this new search capability many of the
previous listings have been fleshed out, which is a bonus even for
readers relying exclusively on the printed edition.
A starburst on the back cover of the catalog trumpets the ability to
“enlarge images up to 300%” for easy viewing. The reality is that
Adobe Reader can magnify the entire page up to 6,400%, but the images
are rendered in such low resolution that crucial details such as
dates, signature titles, and printer imprints are illegible even when
enlarged. Furthermore, since the PDF is a verbatim copy of the printed
page, none of the notes is in color. While full-color printing is
obviously cost prohibitive, Krause squandered a golden opportunity by
not providing a color PDF.
The PDF file is secured, so you can’t copy or print its contents, a
disappointment to anyone hoping to carry only relevant sections of
this 1,088-page book to shows. As an author, I sympathize with
Krause’s desire to maintain control over its content, but I don’t
understand why it blocks commenting. After all, given the catalog’s
many errors, allowing readers to submit corrections using Acrobat’s
annotation tools would be the best way to fix these problems in future
editions.
I really appreciate the inclusion of the PDF on DVD and the expanded
listings in this latest SCWPM, but resent shelling out good money for
yet another mediocre edition.
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