India Princely States catalogue

Started by Andy289, August 10, 2016, 10:29:42 PM

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Andy289

Is there any catalogue available for coins of India Princely States? Or maybe other resources that might help like mints of India Princely States. Any help is very much appreciated. I am trying to study more the coin of Gujarat Sultanate.

asm

Quote from: Andy289 on August 10, 2016, 10:29:42 PM
Is there any catalogue available for coins of India Princely States? Or maybe other resources that might help like mints of India Princely States.
The best general reference is the South Asian Coins Catalog. However this Catalog is full of shortcomings and specialist Catalogs for individual areas are available.

Quote from: Andy289 on August 10, 2016, 10:29:42 PM
I am trying to study more the coin of Gujarat Sultanate.
For this the best is the book by Goron & Goenka.

Amit
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

capnbirdseye

The Goron & Goenka Sultanate book is almosy impossible to obtain for a reasonable price, even Stan Goron himself is amazed at the $5000 price being asked by some booksellers.

There are numerous free downloads of really old publications from Googlebooks, these always have poor photo's of the coins unfortunately but still of interest. Compilations of these are often available on DVD on Ebay

Two  low cost modern reprints you might consider are:
Copper coins of India by W.H. Valentine
and The Currencies Of The Hindu States Of Rajputana by W.W. Webb
Vic

Andy289

Many thanks for your suggestions. I'll see what I can get for a reasonable price.

capnbirdseye

Amit is right that South Asian Coins Catalog has errors but it's still a good general reference if you have no specialist books,  I have the Indian edition printed in 2013 which I use on a daily basis,  it has a large section on Princely states & is still a reasonable price,  available on Amazon depending on where you live
Vic

bacchus

"The Goron & Goenka Sultanate book is almosy impossible to obtain for a reasonable price, even Stan Goron himself is amazed at the $5000 price being asked by some booksellers."

I had to check that - but you're completely right - there are sellers looking $750 for it at the moment.  I think I paid £35 for mine a few years ago - I had no idea it had got so scarce. 

It's a bit like Mitchiners Ancient and Classical world book which is impossible to get.  I got the World of Islam and the Non Islamic & Colonial ones when they were reasonably priced but most of his books go for crazy prices now.

capnbirdseye

Quote from: bacchus on August 12, 2016, 09:08:08 AM

I had to check that - but you're completely right - there are sellers looking $750 for it at the moment.  I think I paid £35 for mine a few years ago - I had no idea it had got so scarce. 


You found a cheap one, check this out  ???


This was last year, I showed it to Stan Goron & he said he never made a single penny from doing that book
Vic

Figleaf

Good news for those who missed out on Goron & Goenka. Paul Stevens announced during the ONS meeting in Leiden (2018) that a new edition is in the pipeline, except that it will become known as Stevens and Goenka.

Dr. Stevens said that two WoC members, S. M. Iftekhar Alam and nnasir, are making very important contributions to the first tome, which will be on Bengal coins. He estimated that this book would appear in something like 2 years. The next book in the series will have the coins of Bombay as its subject. Work has started on this book. The third book in the series will cover the coins of Madras. It is in the planning stage.

In view of Paul Stevens' earlier works and his reputation, my expectations are very high.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

capnbirdseye

I was hoping for a new edition of the G&G Sultanate book but not sure if any of these forthcoming books will cover the range of the original.
The mention of Bengal, Bombay & Madras points more to Presidency issues ?
Vic

Figleaf

It wasn't absolutely clear to me from the context, but Mr. Stevens said that he would take over the role of Stan Goron and mentioned Mr. Goenka, so I assumed the books would cover earlier issues, the more so on the basis of what I know of the interests of S. M. Iftekhar Alam and nnasir. Maybe one of the other WoC members who attended can bring clarity?

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

asm

I have been in touch with Noman Nasir (he is a member here) who has been working on this project. They are working hard to prepare the new Bengal Sultanate catalogue. Noman is a senior Banker who lives in Dhaka, Iftekar Alam, also our member lives in Canada and this has been one of the principle causes for some delays (as I understand it). Also Mr Ramesh Jain of Manohar Publishers - who has done Arthur and Tariq's books as well as many other Numismatic books tells me that other parts of the old G&G are also being redone.
From what I understand, the new additions may necessitate a different book for each sultanate (most id not all).

Amit

PS: this discussion is on the coins of the Sultanate and not Princely states.

"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"