If you collect Australian coins or bank notes then you'll know what I mean when I say 'Maccas'. If you dont, then 'Maccas' is 'The Pocket Guide to Australian Coins and Banknotes' which is currently in it's 15th edition and authored by the well known Australian numismatist Greg McDonald. 'Maccas' is essentially the Australian version of the Redbook for the USA or Spinks for the UK.
Towards the end of each calendar year the Australian coin collecting communinity holds it's collective breath waiting for the new guide to be released. Coin collectors cant wait to see what their coin collections are worth and coin dealers (and I am being cynical here) cant wait to re-price their stock in accordance with the new guide. From what I understand Mr McDonald produces the guide largely by himself and it takes a large part of each year to keep up with new releases from the two Australian mints and to monitor the latest price movements. Mr McDonald is a member of one of Australia's more popular internet coin forums and posted a just a few hours ago that the new edition of the guide will be out shortly!
Had quite a few enquiries about the pocketbook. I fly to Sydney this Saturday (November 22) for a full week to oversee the production. All going well it will be ready the first week of December. Please feel free to buy from your favourite dealer. However if you would like a personally autographed copy please let me know. Price is the usual $29.95 plus $5.00 postage. Address is Greg McDonald Publishing & Numismatics, PO Box 649, Lavington 2641.The new book includes all the new issues for both mints. Also included are redesigned layouts for over 200 pages and seriously updated mint locations for
all the predecimal coins. We have also upgraded some 400 photos to add extra clarity. This book has been the biggest overhaul in at least seven years and
has been an almost seven day a week project since July. I hope you will support it and enjoy it.Kind Regards
Greg McDonald
So there it is, it will be out soon! You can say what you like about the guide and it has it's problems, typos and mistakes (which Greg seems to want to fix up) and the coin images in it are just awful (which also seems to have been addressed), Then there are people who suggest that in a small coin market like Australia that the guide actually sets the price of the market for some coins rather than just reporting on it!
Whatever the case the 'The Pocket Guide to Australian Coins and Banknotes' is an essential reference to almost anyone interested in Australian coins and about the best introduction to Australian coin collecting you'll find anywhere.
Posted by mnemtsas at November 22, 2008 5:50 AM
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