World Paper Money Catalog Free Download
Darci Carlton
Who assigns the Pick Numbers for world paper money? I thought Krause Publications did since they published the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money. But since they are no longer printing the catalogs, it got me thinking who is responsible to determine the Pick Numbers.
Good question. I believe that the ex-Krause people are involved with NumisMaster and are possibly assigning Pick #'s. That's just a guess on my part, but NumisMaster does have all the images that were used in the SCWPM and descriptions word for word. Regardless, there are new Pick numbers being assigned to newly released notes and probably the most frustrating part is that there isn't a place online that updates them real time and is transparent. The Banknote Book does a much better job in assigning #'s and publishing them immediately.
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The 19th edition of this impressive and encompassing resource features:
- 20,000 variety listings of world bank notes.
- 13,000 illustrated bank notes for easy identification.
- Completely vetted and current bank note values in two conditions.
- Country signature charts for specific and accurate variety identification.
condition (aka 'grade' in numismatics). Regarding your comment about carrying paper money during WW2; The paper money would most likely be more valuable if the items had been kept in a book or a currency holder. Usually, the sentimental value only applies to the actual person that carried the currency through a war. As for grading, a person new to numismatics should consider buying a 'catalog' of world paper money and read ALL the information printed at the beginning of book. Paper money catalogs usually have specific detailed information about 'grading'.
Also, if there is a coin shop near your home, visit and see what kind of information the coin shop owner can provide for you. In addition, if there is a coin club near your location consider visiting on their meeting day(s). Probably there will be some coin club members willing to teach you about grading or where to find information about grading.
There are far too many Ebay sellers who know nothing about what they are selling. They drive customers away from the site. They come to this forum to complaint that Ebay does nothing to protect them and helps buyers steal from them. They often cannot afford to lose the money they lose.
If you own older coins and currency, find another way to convert them to spending money. My could discover that selling them, in person, to a professional nets you the same proceeds without the risks of trying to retail them.
So if you want to sell coins and currency, learn about them first! Search ebay for the same items you want to sell, look at what they sold for, compare the items to yours, this will help you get an idea of the value.
Be prepared to eat the shipping or even the entire cost from time to time, especially when you are starting out. Set up a separate bank account for your ebay funds, don't co-mingle them directly with your personal finances.
Numista is a useful site for information about the coins, so are PCGS and NGC and many other sites. Go there, look stuff up, read them. Don't get obsessed with the values they assign, they are only estimates, a better gauge of value is what they sell for on ebay. Don't forget the fees. For most things I use 20% as a rough guideline on what I will pay to sell it.
I'm guessing you are not a coins/currency seller. Unfortunately your "don't get a store" advice isn't actually good advice, or is at least incomplete advice for a coin seller. A coin seller may benefit from a store subscription even if they have only ONE listing!! Anyone with a basic store subscription, or above, will save 4.25% in FVF on coins/paper money category and 5.9% in FVF on bullion category.
Therefore, if you exclude the bullion discount and don't even benefit from extra listing insertions, if you only focus on the C&P category discount ... your 4.25% discount on FVF means that you will break even on your store subscription if you have $657.65 in gross monthly sales (item price, shipping & sales tax). Anything over $657.65 in gross monthly sales means you will have a net savings on eBay fees. Of course if you save on listing insertions (more than 250 monthly listings) or sell bullion (higher discount) means a lower gross monthly sales required to break even.
There are individuals who run a single auction that will sell in the thousands, and it's sad to see they didn't get a store subscription to save some decent dough on the FVF. They weren't aware unfortunately.
Field Guide See a note out in the wild? A catalog will help you identify the country, type and variety. So next time you strap on your waders, grab your binoculars and visit another country or a coin show, bring your catalog(s) along!
Encyclopedia Like an encyclopedia when you were a kid, scouring through a catalog provides detail about the country, issuing authorities, security features, and help identify people, locations, and other subjects featured on banknotes.
For decades, the gold standard was the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money (SCWPM), published by Krause Publications. Originally curated by Albert Pick, his eponymous Pick numbers remain the most widespread numbering system for notes all over the world. It is a giant three-volume set available in print. These would sit proudly in my bookcase like old Encyclopedia Britannicas.
Two examples are the Renniks Australian Coin & Banknote Values catalog, which published its 32nd edition in late 2023, and the Professional Catalog of Lebanese Banknotes. Countless others catalogs are out there as well. I hope to assemble a list some day soon.
Most banknote catalogs follow a similar style of distinguishing their notes, assigning a catalog number that identifies the catalog itself, the banknote type, and its variety. So as explained above, a "P" catalog number is a Pick number, named after the original editor of the SCWPM. The Banknote Book uses a "B" prefix to identify it. Renniks Australian Coin & Banknote Values catalog uses an "R", and the Professional Catalog of Lebanese Banknotes uses "PCLB" for its prefix.
Typically the number that follows is the type, followed by a letter to distinguish its variety. More explanation on types and varieties will come. But for now, I added a graphic below that should prove helpful deciphering catalog numbers.
This becomes less necessary with specialized country catalogs. For example, the new Lebanese 100,000 Livres issued in November 2023 has a catalog number PCLB138a. The PCLB nomenclature is unique to this catalog that only covers Lebanon, so there would be less opportunity for confusion here.
David Mills (of the excellent frenchbanknotes.com, a comprehensive site focusing on French and French-inspired banknotes) pointed out that the catalog Les Billets du Maghreb et du Levant (Banknotes of the Maghreb and the Levant), is one example that does not follow this scheme. The catalog, which covers the 10 or so countries in the North Africa area, starts with Algeria at MK #1, and continues without interruption through the countries, so Tunisia starts at #401. Confusing.
And even within the SCWPM and Banknote Book there are some nuances, like with monetary unions, which may add a suffix letter. West African States, Central African States, and East Caribbean States are examples where individual country codes have been assigned to issuers within the monetary union, and the catalogs append that code as a suffix to the type number. I'll clarify this on this page when I have more time.
Sometimes a new note is discovered, or a later variety changes sufficiently to be promoted to a type, or for other reasons a banknote needs to be inserted logically into numerical order, but without numbers to do so. When the SWCPM needed to insert a new type between, say P45 and P46, they typically appended an A, to create P45A. The Banknote Book will add a half number, inserting B349.5 in-between B349 and B350. (I'll also clarify this given the time.)
Welcome to this 24th edition of the 2018 Krause Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues, 1961-Present. Many new issues, date varieties and signature combinations, as well as expanded text descriptions and price updates, have been added. Madagascar issued a new family of notes, Turkmenistan added a series of commemorative notes, and Venezuela added many denominations to their latest note series. The 24th edition saw updates to many countries including Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Faeroe Islands and India.
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