http://www.printsasia.com/book/punc...ontinent-p-l-gupta-t-r-hardaker-9788186786352 The postal carrier just delivered my newly published revised edition of Gupta, Hardaker, Punchmarked Coinage of the Indian Subcontinent, Magadha-Mauryan Series. Having looked at it for all of ten minutes, I decided to write this review. Don't you just love guys like me? The book has great drawings and photos showing both the theoretical and actual appearance of thousands of punch marks. I can't see how I ever thought of collecting these confusing coins without this book. Now I'll start using it and see if it helps. I see a lot of variations in the prices of these books. Shop around. The publisher's list price converts to $40 at today's rates. Obviously postage from India will add a great amount to that but how much? My book is obviously brand new and came plastic wrapped from the publisher. It was obviously clean and new BUT when I opened the wrapper, the book had a smell that struck me a a bit like a farm with sheep. I believe it will air out and be OK but I wonder if that is the prevailing smell at the printing plant and if all copies smell that way. ..and now the rest of the story. My daughter is remodeling a couple rooms in her house. She ordered a 'sample' of a rug from an ebay seller that said the item location was USA. The sample arrived with Indian postal markings. The sample rug had the same sheepy smell only stronger. I wonder if the glue used on rugs and on books is related? If you have just received a new book from India, tell me how it smells. Newsflash: http://www.grifterrec.com/coins/coins.html This site was missing a couple days ago. Did someone pay the fees so it would not die?
I also received the same book from the same source. Mine did not really smell funny that I noticed, and my wife has a strong sense of smell so I imagine she would have asid something if it did. IDK, maybe it varied by the case? I posted a notice on Esylum about the book after reading about this seller from www.coincoin.com, so I imagine they sold quite a few. Just as background for some, this title is called "Gupta-Hardaker" for short. The first version was the definitive reference for these punchmarks, and this is the second edition, expanded, written by the surviving partner from the first book, Hardaker. Until this new version, older versions of GH were very much in demand and were priced $150-200, so if you are interested in the series I HIGHLY recommend buying this one now while its in print. Trust me, wait a couple of years and the price will be higher. I am pretty cheap when it comes to books, and could not locate a cheaper source than the one Doug listed. You can buy it cheaper in India, but the shipping kills you. THey did away with international book rate a few years back so shipping now is a pain.
Maybe the pages are made from manure? (reduce, reuse and recycle!!) I almost bought one of those coins the other week, but I admit that I was goin' in blind, so I decided to go for something else ... but perhaps a book explaining the coin-types might be a smooth idea? ... not surprisingly, I liked the elephant punches ...
One thing I found interesting and reassuring was the 'honest' drawings of the stamps uses. The authors grayed out parts of the punch that they had not seen actually on the flan of that particular type. I suspect that 99% of their guesses based on similar punches on related coin are correct but it is interesting that they took the trouble to do this. For those not familiar with these coins, I'll point out that no coin has all of the obverse stamps completely on the flan. Whe a guy like me is shopping for coins he favors examples having nice strikes of the more interesting devices that will make it easier to ID the coin. For example, the two coins below are, I believe, the same coin Series VIb #574 which is classified as Rarity AB = abundant (or twice as common as the rating 'Extremely Common'). It would be possible to get a set of ten of these all different in which stamps show most clearly and what shap metal was used. If I were given a thousand random punchmarked coins, I suspect it would take me several years not to identify them but just to sort them into piles that matched. It might be a good speciality for those who do not humiliate easily.
My copy of Meshorer had a similar aroma, a combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness.
Oh, I have that on many books. Just a normal, musty book smell. I got home and smelled my copy of GH, (wife probably thought I was really weird), and do not notice anything.
