Got my copy on the cheap (thanks, andyg!) Don't remember any disappointment.
There's a colour map on the inside cover, followed by short, well illustrated articles on coins of the Coriosolites (Celts), Roman coins found in Jersey, mediaeval coins that may have been used in Jersey and modern (mainly French and English) coins that would have circulated in Jersey or were found there. Since only the Celts were (presumably) made in Jersey, only one chapter refers to Jersey coins, but if you are interested in Jersey's financial history, all these chapters provide information not easily found elsewhere.
The chapter on post-Napoleonic coins and tokens usefully (for my purposes) mingles tokens and coins and discusses them again from the point of financial history. Here, I would have welcomed a separation of tokens that refer to Jersey, probably only because the London and Birmingham token makers freely mingled dies, not because the token was in any way meant to circulate in Jersey. The B/W pictures are dark, but on most, I can see all details (the German 1 pfennig 1940-45 is the exception). Here, the book is changing character, from financial history to describing pictures to be found in coin catalogues. Nevertheless, interesting little facts keep appearing in the text. The short chapter on contemporary coins is short on background, long on (B/W) pictures easily found elsewhere. Useful for newbies, the authors allow their frustration with pseudo coins to shine through. Good for them. The chapter ends with a table of dates on circulation coins and a pretty useless catalogue 1968-2009.
The next chapters of the book is titled miscellaneous - actually a few paragraphs on jetons without relevance to Jersey, a short treatise on tokens, leading to the conclusion that mainly French money was used and only one Bristol token could have been used as money on Jersey (one is unfortunately left wondering for what value it was accepted). Malcolm's disappointment is probably that the 19th and 20th century tokens are covered in one para. More research needed, I suppose. The last paragraph deals briefly with Jersey phone cards. The last chapter deals with the German occupation during the second world war, again good financial history and readable B/W pictures of banknotes.
Appendices describe communion tokens, the enigmatic fréluques and the occupation fantasy tokens, ascribed to two Californian men, made in the 1970s.
The book is concluded by a short bibliography.
Clearly, the book covers all aspects of Jersey numismatics, but not all aspects are covered equally deeply. I would e.g. have liked to see more information on the period 1814-1844, when the islands changed from French to British money and on 19th and 20th century tokens in the broadest sense - I wouldn't even mind paper tickets. Earlier periods are done well to very well, later periods become increasingly superficial and design oriented. I am fine with the pics. Coin pics that are too dark occur regularly in coin publications and colour pics would probably make the book much more expensive. I commend the authors for minimising repetition of coin catalogues and for not letting the volume be dominated by recent pseudo coin issues. This is not the final word on Jersey numismatics, but I do think it is of interest for students of Jersey financial history, collectors looking for background on Jersey coins and those interested in detailed aspects of Jersey history.
Peter
