Chris Eimer writes:

British Commemorative Medals and their Values lists more than 2200 medals. All are fully described, with biographical and historical information and a guide to current market values.

The book includes notes on using the catalogue, an introduction to the medal in Britain and a chapter with production figures. A comprehensive general index allows medals to be located under sitter and subject-matter, and an index of medallists provides details of more than 500 engravers and those associated with the manufacture and publication of medals.

With a considerable amount of information within its covers, the book has been designed for practical use, always with the reader in mind. It will serve collectors and dealers as well as those with a broader interest in the arts, scientific developments, naval and military campaigns and social and political history.

Christopher Eimer, M.Phil, FSA, is a dealer in coins and medals, whose interest in numismatics goes back to the mid-1960s. His other publications include The Medallic Portraits of the Duke of Wellington (1994); and The Pingo Family and Medal-Making in Eighteenth-Century Britain (1998).

The first edition of British Commemorative Medals and their Values was published by Seaby's in 1987. The book comprised 265 pages, with 53 plates and 650 images, and it was issued with a cover price of �30 and a print-run of 1500 copies. It soon established itself as a standard work of reference and was awarded the Mishler Medal in 1988 by the Token and Medal Society of America.

Since going out of print in the early 1990s, second-hand copies have been fetching up to five times the original cover price. The 2nd edition maintains the same format, design layout and entry numbers as the original edition, although it has an additional 60 pages of text and 196 plates, which are now in colour.