Coins Books

Zecca is an impressively researched historical work focusing adeptly on its subject: the Venetian mint in the middle ages. The narrative is very readable and the presentation uses footnotes to annotate the voluminous amount of source material that went into the creation of this work. The book focuses first on the coinage itself, the medieval penny, the grosso, the ducat, and finally the soldino. Each era goes into great detail on the weights, the fineness, and the people making the decisions to have the coins made. The book then goes back and examines each of the roles of the mint employees in additional detail. From the mintmasters and engravers to the smiths and weighers the duties of each position are laid out. In addition salaries and legal documents help flesh out some of the actual persons and the work done at the mint.
The book left me with a thirst for more knowledge about Venice's history. There is little background in the book on some of the external reasons that caused some of the decisions presented in th work. I think this is definitely a must read for those people who have a strong interest in both history and numismatics. It is not so well suited for the casual reader who will undoubtedly get bored by the finer details of how many pennies are in a mark, and which minor noble filled the role of mintmaster. But if the reader is interested in medieval coinage, even if it is not Italian, than this work will provide a ton of insightful information on mint practices and medieval monetary policy.

HALF MAGIC is a fresh, charming YA story about 4 children who find a magic coin that grants wishes. The problem is, it only grants half of what you wish for, so you need to wish for twice of what you want. Now sometimes wishing for twice of what you want is easy, and sometimes it gets you into a whole lot more than twice the trouble.

HALF MAGIC, by Edward Eager, is pleasantly written in a delightful, amiable fashion, perfect for all ages. Somehow, the tone, the style, the atmosphere, the language all make this book feel a little bit like the classic THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, by C. S. Lewis. The four children discovering their magic and then learning how to use it, the adults not believing in it, and even the magic not working for them any more after they had learned what the cosmos felt they needed to learn, all reminded me of the tale Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. But they are very different stories, each with its own merits.

My 11 year old daughter received this as a gift and really enjoyed it. She learned a bit about fractions, too, which is always a plus. I highly recommend this book. It is sweet, fun, and full of surprises.

Half Magic
By Edward Eager

Re-reading this book has reminded me why Half Magic was always one of my favorite magical adventures. This time I listened to the book on tape.

Half magic begins with the children wondering why they can't ever have a magical adventure like the children in their library books. Their adventure begins with a shiny 'nickel' found in a crack of the sidewalk.

Jane, the oldest thinks that nothing exciting ever happens and wishes for a fire. She only gets a small fire, in a playhouse. Next, their average, un-magical mother picks up the coin to use as bus fare. When she wishes to be home from a boring visit with relatives, she finds herself half-way home.

After the children realize they have a half-magic coin, their adventures become very fun and their planning is much more thought out.
Occasionally Jane, Katherine, Mark and Martha make mistakes in their wishes, which will change history. They also appear and disappear so quickly, their poor mother believes she is losing her mind.

Children and adults will enjoy the magical summer adventures in Half Magic. You may even find yourself re-reading Edward Eager's books many times, as I have.

Jill Ammon Vanderwood,
Author of magical adventures:
Through the Rug
Through The Rug: Follow That Dog (Through the Rug)

Four ordinary children find a magical charm and discover that it grants wishes, but only in halves. Through their wishing and consequent adventures, the children realize the importance of helping others, love for each other, and what true happiness is about.

This is a humorous book that I would recommend to others. It is written in a writing style similar to that of Eleanor Estes, which suites the book well.

Edgar Eager is a master at telling a tale that is not only funny, well-plotted, but has realistic characters. In all his magic books, beginning with Half Magic, he reveals the reason why children grow up to not need magic in the overwhelming way they feel the need for it as small children.

What I will say now will not in any way ruin your delightful experience of any of the books (I remember secreting myself with provisions so that I could finish each one in one sitting). Eager very cleverly shows that magic is really not what children or adults want. What we want is happy endings and adventures--all of the tales have them. Each episode of encountering magic ends up revealing how very dangerous magic can be, since each of the children in each story ends up wishing for things before they've thought the magic's rules through. So there are exciting and unexpected turns of plot in each book.

It may seem like a criticism to say that these books reveal why children reading them can grow up out of magic of this kind. But in fact the gentle, exciting and challenging stories reveal to the children that not ony do good things happen without their help. But the magic challenges them to get involved in taking action themselves. They end up realizing that magic won't really get them everything they hope for, and it often gets them much more than they dreaded! These books reveal why Peter Pan is in the end a pathetic person, since he wants to control life and people to some degree, whereas the children in these books learn that exciting adventures can be found at any time and any place but that when all the magic's done they are understanding that growing up itself is an adventure and there really is "no place like home."

As a child I devoured these. I wish they had reprinted them earlier so my now college graduate sons could have enjoyed them at a younger age. An analogy may be helpful. My sons and I love the "Veggie Tale" stories. If they had been in preschool at the time they first saw them, they would still have loved them. The Veggie Tales came out when they were in high school--but they still loved them and continue to enjoy them with their adult perspective.

Edgar Eager must have been a very gentle, clever and kind man to write the books the way he did. He takes the reader on a wild ride, but leaves him happily on his own doorstep at the end, with the memories of their shared magic adventures. Hope you love them as much as I did...and do! God bless you!

These audio books help children that are having trouble with the written word. I also use them in the car, so each trip we hear more of the story. The kids love them and I think it makes them interested in reading.

this book is absolute garbage. the author has no concept of history and completely disregards the archaeological and historical record. If you you want to know more about ancient history, go to the experts. heck, even Livy is better than this guy!

Looking through this book reminded me of the movie "A Beautiful Mind". A brilliant mathematician constructs a fantasy world complete in every detail. The only problem is that it doesn't exist, and that he's as mad as a hatter.

Just two examples of the many "possibilities" suggested by our schizoid author:

(1) The Biblical flood and the Trojan War were the same event because Noah was Aeneas, who fled Troy to found Rome. (Noah and Aeneas had names that sound alike. Thus it is proven.)

(2) Nine kings fled the fall of the Tower of Babel and seven kings founded Rome. Therefore, Rome was founded by the kings who fled the fall of the Tower of Babel. (In the author's words, the Biblical figure of nine is "close enough" to the Roman figure of seven.)

Need I go on?

The professional historians faint as prominent mathematician Doctor Fomenko et al research the known historical data and come to fairly controversial conclusions.

For example, the English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. As the sign of recognition of the special role of the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Russian historians brand it as pseudoscience because Dr Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by over two centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called `Tartars and Mongols' were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a trilingual state and aspiring Global Empire with Arabic and Turkic spoken as freely as Russian.

The ancient proto-Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities and the hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called `blood tax'). Their `invasions' were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion.

Fomenko proves for a fact that official Russian history is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scholars brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs. Their ascension to the throne was the result of conspiracy, so they charged these German historians-imports with the noble mission of making Romanov's reign look legitimate.

Dr Fomenko et al prove Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. These rulers represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate Godounovs and the ambitious Romanov upstarts.

The European historians fume not only because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History but for asserting that all medieval European Kings and Princes were but breakaway vice-regents and vassals of the Global Empire who badly needed glorious and very `ancient' past in order to legitimize their new independence from the Empire.

Dr Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one: the Ancient Rome: the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the 14th century A. D., the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, the Ancient Egypt: the pyramids of Giza become dated to the 11th to 14th century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global Empire, no less.

The civilization of the `ancient'' Egypt is irrefutably dated to the 11th to 15th century A. D. following the breakthrough in decoding of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone and painted on the temple walls.

Arabic historians may find some consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire as a part of the Global empire in the 15th - 17th century. The trouble is that this Empire was initially a proto-Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, but built in 1550-1557 A.D. by Sultan Suleiman according to Fomenko and Islam with all its key figures is datable to 15th 16th century A. D.!

The Chinese historians are also an unhappy lot because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such history. Period. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the 17th 18th century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation.

The Divinity excommunicates Dr Fomenko because the history of religions according to Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the 11th century and Jesus Christ ), Bacchic Christianity (11th to 12th century, before and after Jesus Christ), Jesus Christ Christianity (12th to 14th century) and its subsequent mutations (15th to 17th cy) into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on..; and The Old Testament written after the New Testament in xiv-xvi cy A.D., if you please! Everybody served? Saint Augustine was quite prescient when he said: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!

The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.

Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but

there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.

Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.

You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!

The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!

New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.

The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.

The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.

Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.

We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.

Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.

The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.

When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.

There are no answers to simple questions:

When were these primary sources written?

Where and by whom were these sources found?

It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.

As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,

innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.

The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.

Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.

This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.

Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.

`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as

there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.

Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.

They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.

All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:

Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!

The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!

The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.

All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.

Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.

Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!

This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

This book is great for learning different card handling and shuffling techniques, however it can be a little tuff to follow sometimes. If you dont already have a basic understanding of how to handle cards you might want to start with a video first. It's usually a bit easier to learn when you can actually see whats going on. A side from all that, this is a really good book.

The basic treatise on card magic. Though somewhat outdated, this is still the fundamental course on card sleights. Pretty good tricks in here too. Sound learning principles: learn sleight, learn tricks using the sleight, only then move on to next sleight. As this is inexpensive every magician ought to have this in his library, if only as a reference work.

This book is designed to teach the reader how to perform a wide variety of basic sleight-of-hand card tricks. The sleights themselves are classics; I think that knowing basic sleight of hand is fundamental for performing really impressive card magic, and this book contains all of the groundwork you will need. The book includes information on the overhand shuffle, the riffle shuffle, the glimpse, the palm, the double lift, the pass, and much more.

The explanations of the sleights are quite detailed. This allows the reader to pick up fine points and refine the techniques.

That said, I think this book has some important deficiencies. (1) Many of the moves are not illustrated at all. It's very difficult to learn some sleight of hand moves with just a verbal description. More pictures would be tremendously helpful. (2) While the book contains many great tricks, especially towards the end, it also includes a number of dull ones. I personally hate any card trick that involves spelling (i.e., you count cards out as you spell some word, and the last card counted out is the chosen one), and this book includes plenty of those. Still, if you select tricks carefully from the book, you will end up with some astonishing routines.

One warning, though: sleight-of-hand magic requires a LOT of practice. If you're interested in picking up a new magic trick in five minutes, this is not the book for you! If, however, you would like to learn really deceptive card tricks - tricks that the average spectator will really be stunned by - and you are willing to devote time to daily practice, then this book is a fine option.

This is a truly wonderful book. I can't think of a better one for Card magic. It explains the different sleights, and has excellent routines to use them. It does assume one has a basic understanding of Card magic, so I suppose someone starting out who has no background could find it frustrating. It's not the best book for a rank beginner, but for someone who has some knowledge of the basics, I think it's terrific.

This is the best book to start in card magic. Small, easy to follow, full of information. After you read this book, you will be able to understand the description of most tricks to learn, and also, you will surprise yourself figuring out tricks just to look at someone performing it. If you want to be a professional magician (not my case at all) you'll have to read a lot more, but, this book will be always a good reference.

I recommend after finishing reading RRTCM, move to Expert Card Technique written by the same authors.

Modern Coin Magic, or the 'Bobo Book', is one of the CLASSICS of coin manipulation and deserves a prominent place in the library of any magician. Thanks to Dover we can avail of this book more than 5 decades after its first publication.

Commencing with the basics of palming, sleeving, concealment, production, vanishes, etc., this book builds on with quick simple 'tricks' to ever more complex routines - including suggestions on patter & mis-direction. Never before have I seen such clarity of explication & illustration in books devoted to sleight of hand. And there is hardly any sleight of coin manipulation that has not been covered in this book. While one can come up with one's own routines based on a thorough mastery of the 'primitives of the trade', the most famous routines of its day have also been documented to the tiniest relevant detail.

However, be warned that a complete mastery of coin manipulation is 'earned' only after hours & hours & hours of practice. This book is not the place to be looking for trivial 'self working' coin tricks (though they may well be in here).

An excellent companion to this book is Expert Card Technique: Close-Up Table Magic which is to Cards as the Bobo book is to Coins.

Overall a MUST HAVE for any budding/practising magician. Highly Recommended.

This book is great for learning good old fashioned magic. There is a ton of different coin handling techniques. Trick coins will only take you so far, "Modern Coin Magic" will help you to learn the coin skills to amaze your friends and family with any coin. Of course with lots of practice.

This review will be simple and to the point. One of the best coin books you can possible find. By reading it, you won't just gain skills with coins. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Anyway, great book.

You find the best magic in books.

To many magicians these days learn from videos and DVD's. While these are useful tools, book are where it is really at. The skill it takes to read a book and put it all together is what makes a magician great.

But you have to find the right books and this is certainly one of them. Every magician worth his salt should have certain books in his library and Bobo's Coin Magic is one of them.

Tim "Santiago" Converse
Enter a World of Elegant Magic
Santiago's Magic

Although this book is not really "modern" anymore, I found it to be the most comprehensive and helpful book on coin magic that I have ever read. It gives detailed illustrations and step by step instructions (unlike some other books) and is well worth the effort. I definitely reccomend this book as a great buy, especially if you have been looking around on the internet for some coin magic that you can easily learn. There really is no website, but this is a great buy at a great price. Definitely buy this book, whether you are a novice magician or an expereienced one.

I bought one for my 5 y.o son and then bought one for my 9 y.o. daughter because they enjoyed doing the first one so much. It is nice because it is simple to fill in a large portion of the book and the kids feel a sense of accomplishment.

There are some rare coins required but not a ton of them. I am finding several on eBay ($2.00 for a rare quarter, etc.) and the kids are saving up to buy a few of them.

Have a magnifying glass handy so kids can see the dates on the coins. You'll need a good pile of coins to start with. Your kids will be busy for an hour or so. I find that we put the books away and bring it back out every other month. We also carry around a list of the coins we are missing and keep an eye out for them.

This book was in my top 5 purchases of the year so far.

I bought this as a kindergarten graduation gift for my daughter. Little did I realize the family bonding it would inspire. She and my husband spent hours sifting through our coins. Then we took it to the grandparents house and they spend hours going through their coins with her. We now have given 3 more as birthday gifts to her friends. The slots work perfectly and the historical information is very well done. It's a gift she'll have for many, many years to come instead of a toy or book she'll outgrow someday.

This is the third time I have purchased this book. What a great way to introduce children to coin collecting. However, with my third purchase, the binding has either changed or I received an older edition. The binding keeps getting caught on the pages but all in all I would still buy the book. However I would look for the version with metal ring binding versus the white plastic covered metal binding I received on this latest book. I would have given the product five stars otherwise.

This past summer my kids and I sorted, counted, and rolled over $550 in coins. In the process we filled our coin collecting book (the previous version of this one) and I couldn't believe what a great bonding experience this was. I have 3 children 6 1/2, 5, and 3 years old. My 6 1/2 year old was really into this...not so much for my other ones. But, I think they were just a little to young for them. We're on the hunt to fill in all the slots in the book.

A TIP: We used glue to keep some of the coins in. They are a little tough to get in the slots, but we used a quarter and pressed the quarter on the coin to oush them into the slot. It's amazing how heavy the book gets when it's full. This was a great memory for me this summer.

This coin book is great! Both my of my kids have one (ages 5 and 9) and they love them. My oldest in particular has really gotten into coin collecting and learning how money is made. It has a special page where you collect coins from your birth year and a statehood quarter from your birth state. Collect all of the statehood quarters and presidential coins. Collect the oldest of each coin that you find with an easy way to change them out if older coins are found. I wish all of the coins had this special feature so you could switch out coins if you found one in better condition.

My only real complaint is that the newer versions of these books have a terrible, terrible design for the spiral bound construction that keeps all of the pages in. It is made of metal and comes loose and pages come out. I will have to do what the previous reviewer did and basically connect them back together with something permanent. I just hope it will still look nice once I do that.

Actually, I do have one other complaint. I ordered a few of these to give as gifts since the kids really enjoy them and they are not too costly. Most of the books I got from Amazon were not in gift giving condition, meaning they had scratches on the covers and the corners were torn. Amazon was great about refunding though.

So, get a book in good condition, fix the spiral and you have a great book with hours of entertaining and learning.

At first that is not colour catalog, so all pictures of banknotes are black and white, but in description for this book there is no such information (minus for AMAZON) - only information is that catalog is paperback...
There is very little or almost no information about some countries (SLOVENIA, CROATIA, YUGOSLAVIA...), but some countries have too much information (USA...). Won't mention that all informations (facts) about some countries are not truth (example: SLOVENIA never had money named LIPA, first money was named BON, second money issued was named TOLAR - which was till the 2005, when we took EURO)...
There is a lot of banknotes for some countries that are missing, and I think that collectors for all arund the world send pictures of banknote to the author (Cuhaj), but I think KRAUSE PUBLICATIONS have very little interest about publishing good book - catalog for world paper money. Hope there will be some other publication company that will publish better catalog will real and good information about worl banknotes...

I think this catalog will be better (because of publishing company and also author), but find out that this is just wasting my money.

Also have doubt about author knowing world paper money so good he is saying????????

Hello to all reputable collectors!!!
I am very thankful to authors for this great book!
It is very useful thing to valuate banknotes.
Greetings from Ukraine!!!
Sergey Trushin
http://www.wezom.com.ua
http://www.lacrysil.com

It was a pleasure to work with you. The catalog is very useful and it was delivered in no time. Thank you

As a beginning collector, I didn't really know very much about this subject, and the book helped me immensly. I highly recommend this book both for novice collectors like me, and for those lucky individuals who have been doing it for years. An excellent source!

If you collect modern banknotes, you must own the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Volume III: Modern Issues (US$50, Krause Publications, ISBN 0-89689-502-5). The simple fact is that there is no other omnibus catalog that covers post-1960 issues in such detail. Now in its 13th edition, Volume III contains 12,000 illustrations of notes from over 200 issuing authorities, most with valuations in three different conditions. The SCWPM is our collector community's bible, and its "Pick" numbers are the lingua franca used worldwide to identify types and varieties. However, anyone who spends more than a few minutes examining the SCWPM soon discovers its many flaws.
Let me begin by stating that I realize it is a gargantuan task trying to ensure the accuracy of so much detailed data on a subject that is sometimes obscured by intentional secrecy. With 1,048 pages, it's inevitable that minor typos creep in and omissions are made. Many errors I had spotted in previous editions have been corrected, yet new ones have cropped up. But the problems I have with the SCWPM are not minor, they are systemic. According to the back cover blurb, editor George Cuhaj compiles input from "more than 80 experts around the world." This alone probably explains many of the catalog's flaws. These unpaid contributors are anonymous, and they bring different levels of dedication to the task of updating their areas of expertise. As a result, the SCWPM is often inconsistent.
For example, sometimes a note with a new date or signature combination gets a new type number, other times it warrants only a new variety letter, and other times it's just grouped together with several other dates. Australia, Switzerland, and West African States all have listings with extremely detailed varieties, while most other countries list only an issued note and specimen. Speaking of specimens, often they are listed without description or price. Does this mean they are unconfirmed or rare? And why is it that the introduction claims the variety letter "r" is used to indicate remainders, though Biafra's notes lacking serial numbers are given "b" variety letters and Cayman Islands uses "r" to indicate replacements? Rather than being systematic and predictable, the numbering scheme is arbitrary and subjective. Fortunately, renumbering has been held to an "absolute minimum" in this edition, but unexplained gaps from previous renumberings exist, as do new discoveries shoehorned into the inflexible scheme with numbers followed by capital letters to distinguish them from lower-case variety letters.
The problem with inconsistencies extends beyond the pervasive numbering scheme to the issue of signatures. If a country's note varieties are clearly distinguishable from one another based upon other attributes--such as date or overall design--I understand there is no need to publish a signature table. However, it is unforgiveable to omit same if the note descriptions make specific references to signatures either by number or name. For example, Argentina SCWPM 275-282 refer to signature titles by letters, but the accompanying table from the 12th edition has been dropped. Likewise, Belgium SCWPM 134-152 refer to signature numbers that have never been documented in any edition. Unfortunately, the signature tables which do appear don't always include the signatory's full name, title, and term of service. In fact, Bhutan's signature table lacks numbers altogether, so references are confusing, to say the least.
I'm happy to report that the list of banknote printers and their abbreviations has returned after being dropped since the 10th edition, but good luck finding it since it doesn't appear in the table of contents (hint: it's in the back of the book, sandwiched between full-page advertisements).
Though it bears a copyright of 2007 and claims to cover modern issues from "1961-present," the 13th edition fails to include many recent releases one would expect. For example, there's no mention of the new families of notes from Azerbaijan and Mozambique introduced in 2006, nor of the European Union notes bearing Jean-Claude Trichet's signature, and these have been out for years. Nonetheless, I would recommend the 13th edition if for no other reason than its black-and-white images are much clearer overall than the muddy illustrations of the previous edition. While the front and back of most notes are shown, not all notes are depicted, and the images are just big enough to aid in identification, but not to savor the details. Inexplicably, all recent editions have also included eight pages in color of randomly selected notes without any commentary or obvious purpose. This costly insert should be put to better use--highlighting new color varieties or particularly attractive new issues--or dropped entirely.
Aside from identification of note varieties, the other purpose of a catalog is to provide accurate values of notes. Here, too, the SCWPM provides questionable guidance. Many countries have not seen any valuation changes whatsoever over the course of several editions. This is simply impossible given the fact that all values are expressed in US dollars, and this currency has experienced a significant drop in exchange rates across the board over the past few years. For example, the high-denomination Haitian notes printed on Tyvek remain listed at relatively accessible prices, despite the fact that I have never seen these rarities offered for sale at any price. Even in those countries which have been updated, the new valuations are unreliable. For example, Romania's notes dated 2005 are all still priced below face value, though not as severely as in the previous edition. On the other hand, the prices of common recent issue Australian notes have spiked beyond reason. And some countries--such as France, Italy, and Qatar--have some VG and VF notes priced at face, despite being demonetized.
If you collect the entire world, the SCWPM is the only game in town, and is a necessary reference well worth the price, even in light of its shortcomings. But if you focus on particular countries or regions, you'll want specialized catalogs instead.

This review first appeared in print in the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) Journal 46.3.

A work of fiction that is at once lovely and harsh at times, Coin Locker Babies was the first novel at the conclusion of which i immediately returned to page 1 to read it again. The story line is pretty unpredictable, a quality I tend to enjoy about foreign novels, but the imagery is what really made me fall in love with the book. Murakami's ability to describe a scene (aided by the top-notch translation) is such that they actually appear before my eyes without effort or intention on my part. His descriptions of the thoughts and feelings of the characters is accurate to the point of being scary. His knack of drawing my mind into this world can be related to Hashi's vocal skills as he describes them. A truly stunning work. I am anticipating the release of the film version in 2008 with almost as much zeal as i have for this, my third reading of the novel.

Nobody likes a bad review but I just want to prepare you. This is the bleakest of the bleak postmodern Japanese novels (that I've read at least). It is full of senseless and predictable violence and self-destruction that all basically happens to prove a point -- people's bleak futures are determined by their haunting pasts. I give it 2 stars because the existence of this book balances out a lot of novels that ignore the illnesses in society -- poverty, violence, etc -- in modern Japan or even the world. The book is shocking, and to an extent this is good medicine. But I think it's overkill.

I prefer, and recommend, Murakami Ryu's In the Miso Soup. It is shocking and violent as well, to be sure, but I feel more thought provoking, interesting, and a quicker read.

I first came across Mr. Murakami 's works through my best friend ,who was into Japanese avant garde writing ,about 5 years ago. Since then, i have been a big fan of him and have recommended his works to alot of my other friends as well. What really seduced me into his works are how he deals with the "nihilism. " nature, and that how factual his works to reality actually are. He stands for something where alot of his contemporary have tried and failed. "Coin Locker Babies", arguably his most famous works, is no exception to that assertion..

"Coin" has always been my favorite book of his. And as mentioned in the introduction, the "nihilism. " nature in here is alive and well. He usually uses mundane, gory perspective so adopt by few to explain his plots.; he uses that very effectively here.
The most notable (without spoiling anything to anyone) has to be the beginning of the text, whereas the twin infantile were place in an abandoned locker while their mom gavethem a mouthful. Deceptively done yet vaguely speaking tone made this a heavy triumphin usual Murakami fashion. This scene helps set up not just the vile tone in the atmosphere, but also how this two child will eventually grow up to become as well.I would not give out their names as it will spoil an integral parts of the story, so just bear in mind obsession and destruction are how I will describe their alter ego which they will eventually become

Alot of folks will probably never get a chances to see this Edgar Allan Poe of our age. And i hope whoever is reading this don't be one of those fools, go do yourself a favor; i urge you to buy this book once and for all. It will sink your world.

Recent events have blown the lid off the view of Japan as a pocket of social stability, obedience and honor. The Aum cult's nerve gas attacks, lurid tales of the Japanese mafia (the Yakuza), widespread political corruption, guns on the streets, and the government's failure to effectively respond to the victims of the Kobe earthquake have revealed the seems of a society long regarded as airtight and orderly.

Ryu Murakami's latest novel, Coin Locker Babies, is a brilliantly inspired coming-of-age tale set in this increasingly amorphous, dark underbelly of modern Japan. Hashi and Kiku, both abandoned at birth by their mother in the coin lockers of a Tokyo train station, are rescued and sent to an orphanage where they are the subjects of an experiment that exposes them to subliminal sound and film. Eventually adopted by a family on a remote Japanese island, the boys are both guided and haunted by those subversive hypnotic impressions--the constant rhythm of a woman's heart beating accompanied by images of animals running across an opening range--as they grow up exploring the lush natural environment of their new home.

Models of rejection and alienation, Hashi and Kiku develop separate ways of coping with their condition. While working as a prostitute in Toxitown, Hashi's otherworldly voice is discovered by an unscrupulous pimp (Mr. D), and he becomes an overnight pop-star sensation. His singing actually induces the audience into a deep trance where the emotions, images, and sensations of their lives play out in languid stream-of-consciousness sequences. Hashi believes he can heal the world with his vocal cords and campy stage productions, which fall somewhere between Ziggy Stardust and Liberace.

Kiku become a championship pole vaulter. Outwardly, he's the strong and silent type, but beneath the surface rages the angst of a man hell-bent on destroying Tokyo as revenge for his abandonment. His quest for Datura, a poison eerily echoing the Sarin used in the Tokyo subway gassings, leads him on several adventures, finally to a mysterious government test site in a cave beneath the ocean.

Coin Locker Babies establishes Murakami as a writer to watch. While tempting to compare his work to the troubled youth stories of J. D. Salinger and S. E. Hinton, it's probably more accurate to place him in the context of contemporaries such as Mark Richard (Fishboy; Doubleday, 1993) and Patrick Süskind (Perfume; Knopf, 1986).

Murukami is a literary contortionist, effortlessly shifting between elements of cyber culture, absurdism, existentialism, and magical realism; all of this offset by soaring descriptions of nature, the senses, and the darkness that lurks beneath. In this way, Murakami masters the transition from the roar of apocalyptic chaos to the tranquility of a quiet meditation. The effect is dazzling and surprisingly lucid.

(originally published in San Francisco Review of Books, 1995. now defunct, © by author, todd jatras)

I read this book about 3 years ago and what I remember the most was that the first page invoked a kind of emotion that I can't quite describe. Murakami's writing is so vivid in detail, but unlike many writers, every single word is important. I've read 2 of his other novels, but this, in my opinion is the best.

Ordered this book as a gift for my husband. He's new to card tricks. While he didn't find the entire book useful, he did find a lot of interesting/entertaining tricks to work on.

Overall 4 stars because it helped him learn some new tricks but didn't keep him occupied for more than 2 weeks :).

Some people cook by recipe, others "by ear," so to speak. I do magic by ear. That is, I look for ideas, and then usually tweak things to fit what I think makes sense.

This is a tremendous book for ideas! Lots and lots and lots of them.

So for a "give me an idea I can run with" person, I think this book is just great. For someone looking more for a step-by-step recipe, this probably isn't the book for you.

The title of the book gives a good idea of what is in store. Primarily an information source of magic card tricks.

Light on useable information so far as performing is concerned, yet good for the historian.

Then again, most magicians are weak performers and strong on history, so this book will be a treat.

The cardtricks book is well written and PACKED with card tricks - more than you could deal with in a lifetime. Hugard has written many books on the subject and you can't go wrong. Another online resource I found and loved is http://www.ellusionist.com - amazing site with card trick movies and a bunch of cool stuff.

This book is great in its completeness and organization. It walks you through most of the card tricks. This book is not geared toward beginners or younger audiences. If you are a visual learner this book is not for you. There are very few pictures and diagrams so you will have to use your imagination at times to visualize what the trick is supposed to look like based on the descriptions.

Received the book earlier than anticipated, but to my dismay, found that pages 193-224 were missing. I am in the process of returning the item for a replacement

This year's book is much cheaper than many of the other coin price books for sale and includes up to date info (exept for recent mintage facts). If you collect coins, I would definently recomend this for your collection.

outstanding, just what I wanted and the price was better than anywhere I checked.

This book has all kinds of coins and is in full color. They show how much each is worth. It is great!!!!

The editors of the Red Book hit the ball out of the park with this edition; Mr. Bressett deserves great praise for the dramatically improved layout and presentation. The quality of images is very high, and the ease of looking up information is vastly improved. While the advertisements I have bemoaned in the past are still present, in this edition I don't care - the quality of the improvements and overall book outshine the imperfections. If you haven't picked up a copy of the Red Book in a few years, I would definitely pick up this one, or (as of this writing), the soon-to-be-released 2007 edition.