I've been working on a Hungarian type set from KM440-KM500, but I've got quite a few gaps where there are missing KM numbers. It's my understanding that as they are assigned sequentially, there should not be gaps unless a later correction was made that removed or reassigned a coin's number. Out of the original 17 gaps I had on my list, I was able to find references to 4 of them; 3 of them were mules and 1 was a trial strike in lead that had been renamed to TS23. This left 13 gaps: KM450, KM460-464, KM470-474, KM479, and KM499. I know of one pattern coin listed as X-11 that would otherwise belong in this range, but I can find no indication that it ever had a KM#. Is there a way to find out if gaps are due to errors (and thus the numbers were retired), corrections (where the coin is still listed under another number) or if they represent obscure coins that are not generally listed?
Sometimes the coins referred to by the missing KM numbers (gaps) are merely on another page. They might refer to Proofs, trial strikes, patterns, or yeah it may be that the missing number was simply replaced with a new number for some reason. But yeah, I know what you are talking about, it used to drive me crazy too.
Yea I've looked through the trial strikes, patterns, and restrikes lists and the only one I found there was the one renamed from KM456 to TS23. I wish they wouldn't remove numbers from the catalogue but would instead leave them there with a placeholder explaining why there is a gap.
sometimes I find the KM #'s on older Krause catalogs. not sure that helped ? maybe it's just pics of the coins not pictured ???
I only have catalogs going back a few years, so I don't have any significantly older catalogs to check. The missing coins aren't listed on Numista or NGC and I've Googled them in both English and Hungarian and come up empty. I'm sure they were listed at some point, since the numbers must have been assigned. Right now I've got no information at all on these, just that there are gaps where the numbers should be on my spreadsheet.
You'll also notice that Krause seems to use Yeoman numbers for some asian coins. The confusion of the cataloging system is what will always happen when a mint or a country has made its coins and then someone comes in after the fact and tries to catalogue them. For world coins, you might have to get to know several cataloging systems, such as Krause, and the system that numismatists use in the coins' country of origin.
Great idea. For some reason it never occurred to me before to order a Hungarian catalog. I just ordered a copy of Adamovszky István's Magyar Érme Katalógus 1848-2010. Everything I need to know about this set will likely be in that book.
Yeah, I got so much more information from resources from my coins' native-countries. Now, you just have to read "Magyar," huh? Hopefully you or someone you know is literate in Hungarian. Google translate can help (a little), if not. In addition to English-language searches on Hungarian coins, another avenue is to do some Hungarian-language internet searches, and find books written by Hungarian experts on these coins. I went from zero information, to overload of information on S. Korean coins when I found a book written by one of their former currency designers who worked at the time of the most change at their Mint. If he hadn't written that book, all those stories, all that history would have been lost, as it wasn't written down by anybody other than him. The Korean catalogues help, too, as well as Korean-Language blogs put up by "coin people" in Korea. A whole new world may be opening up for you. Krause is nice, but very limited, in my experience.
Got the actual Hungarian catalog in hand now. Man there are a lot of coins in here! This was definitely the right way to go. The book uses a different numbering system entirely and the coins are grouped by series (finally an official logical grouping). Interestingly the catalog also has the Austrian versions of the coins listed (an awesome bonus!). The book doesn't correlate the coins to the KM versions, but there are a lot of coins listed that are clearly not listed in Krause including tons of varieties I haven't seen documented elsewhere. It's going to take me a bit to digest all of this new information.
Yep. Different numbering system, and logically grouped. I find it a little odd how Krause has seemingly assigned its catalog numbers willy-nilly. What I also noticed was that Krause assigns different KM numbers to some coins (as if they were a different version of the coin), but the Korean catalogue(s) do not at all. Korean numismatists also notice varieties that Krause doesn't, and vice-versa. And because your catalogue focuses on ONE country, they can get pretty specific, whereas Krause makes an assertion regarding varieties with THREE words "Note: Varieties Exist" and have no further information to back that up, like pictures, attribution, etc. That info is outside of the scope of their catalog, true enough, but Krause won't even responding to inquiries from its users(!), as I have tried before. According to Doug (an admin here), Krause probably doesn't even have the information about their assertions anymore! So who knows where their assertions come from? Even Krause doesn't.
Yea, the Hungarian catalog just uses a letter to denote the period and then a number followed by a decimal increasing by denomination, so K1.1 is the Korona period (1892-1925), 1st coin (lowest denomination), 1st variety. I was surprised that some of the types are not numbered differently in the Hungarian catalog though. They just lump them together under one number but indicate the changes by year without a new number. I'm going to have to integrate this data with the KM numbers to have a complete list. There are at least a dozen types that are not in Krause (could be the gaps), plus a ton of patterns.
If you do any writing about these coins (like I have with Korean coins), or simply catalog your own personal collection, you may want to list both the Krause and István (is that the Hungarian publisher?) numbers side-by-side when citing them. This is what I did when I made my own airtite albums using Dansco pages and binders. I wrote KM catalog numbers next to the common Korean identifiers in my typeset album, separated by a forward slash "/" In my album videos, I cite the exact KM and DaeGwangsa (Korean catalogue) numbers:
I'm not sure what to call the numbering system. I don't know if the author created it or if it was previously established. The book is published by the Hungarian Numismatic Association in association with the coins and medals department of the Hungarian National Museum. I could call it the Adamovszky number (Hungarians use their family name as their first name and their personal name as their last name, so István would basically be his first name to Americans. It's the equivalent of Stephen.). I keep my coins in a spreadsheet. I've just switched them around so they are listed by the Adamovszky number now, and then by the Krause number. With all this new data I've got, I'm going to need to reorganize my spreadsheet quite a bit. I've got much better info on reported mintage, varieties, trial strikes, restrikes, and proofs. I really appreciate your suggestion to look into a Hungarian catalog. This is one of the best coin books I've purchased for sure. I am very excited about how this new data is going to help shape my collection.
Good luck in your endeavors! I noticed another Hungarian catalogue at ebay: Unger: Hungarian Coin Catalog III. 1740-1922
