Regarding last week's new book announcement, Joe Boling writes:

My copy of the World Paper Money Errors book by Morland C. Fischer arrived this week, and it's a visual treat. There is precious little text in the book, but for anyone at least somewhat familiar with U.S. paper money errors, more text is unnecessary. Methods of producing banknotes are similar throughout the world, and the types of errors are understandably similar.

Fischer's book organizes the error notes into several standard categories, including shifted overprint errors, inverted faces/backs, inverted or missing overprints, mismatched serial numbers, etc.

One feature is really like is the inclusion of images of normal notes alongside the error notes - this makes it very easy for those of us not already familiar with the notes to clearly see the problem. I also commend the author and publisher for including images of BOTH sides of the error note, even though often only one side exhibits the error. Again, this is a great help for those unfamiliar with the banknotes of a given country.

Another feature I found useful was the section illustrating each major type of error with both a U.S. banknote and one from another country. This focus on U.S. readers and collectors is nice for those of us in the U.S., although I wonder if readers from other countries will care for it.

Similarly, I wonder if the book's "FEN Scale" (Foreign Error Note categories) is appropriately named. Germany banknotes aren't foreign to a German, but U.S. banknotes are. The book's title is appropriately less provincial.

I'm not qualified to review the book's price estimates, but I think most readers will find them quite useful. All in all this seems to be an extremely useful guide to the field. Illustrated in color throughout, the book is a visual delight - even a casual reader should enjoy the wonderful range and beauty of the world banknotes pictured within (typically three notes per page).

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:NEW BOOK: WORLD PAPER MONEY ERRORS BY MORLAND FISCHER(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n19a02.html)