A map of the world.
The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money is a comprehensive illustrated guide to paper banknotes. This three-volume publication is the most widely used by collectors. The catalog contains paper money from hundreds of countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Each entry contains photos of the front and back of each invoice, identifying information, current market value, and a series of appendices.
The catalog is arranged alphabetically by country of origin. In addition to photos of the front and back of the bills, each entry has an identification code and denomination, printer name, and valuation information. The appendices contain general reference information, including currency exchange tables, bank identification, and international numbers. There is also an extensive color gallery with selected notes. Two indexes organize the accounts by country, issuer and bank.
The currency is valued primarily according to its condition in the standard catalog of world paper money. Modern account categories include very good, very good, and uncirculated. Older accounts are classified as good, good, or extremely good. The value is also determined based on the availability of the note in the market, the design characteristics of a given issue and the issuing bank.
Originally published in 1975, the first editions of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money were compiled by Alfred Pick. He devised an alphanumeric coding system for each bill that is still in use today. In recognition of his contribution, the publication is commonly called Selection Catalogues. Krause Publishing took over production of the catalog in 1994.
Pick’s alphanumeric coding system provides basic information about each invoice. Each code begins with an uppercase prefix and is followed by a number. Occasionally a lowercase letter follows the number to provide further identification. The first letter part of the code indicates the series of the note, the numbers indicate the date and denomination of the series, and the lower case letters identify any variations of the note in question.
In addition to the books, there is also a separately available CD-ROM version of the standard world catalog of paper money. It consists of PDF pages of book entries. This format can be useful for collectors as it allows the viewer to enlarge the pages to see the details more closely and to search for codes and phrases in the PDF. It is also possible to print separate pages from the CD-ROM, a particularly useful feature for collectors who want to bring information to trade shows.