BOOK REVIEW (BOLIN): SIEGE NOTES OF THE WORLD

Siege Notes of the World 1793-1913
by Lawrence Korchnak, Ph.D.

Reviewed by Benny Bolin

When Maria Fanning contacted me about doing a book review on a book related to Siege Notes, being the history nerd I am I say an emphatic YES. I was thinking of sieges that occurred around medieval times, times of King Arthur, dragons, knights.

 

Then, I got the book and it was about sieges of the 18th-20th century. I did not even know sieges happened that late. What I found out was Dr. Korchnak published the book of siege currency as a companion to Siege Coins of the World 1453-1902. He published it to get all the current information on siege notes in one reference instead of four or five. As much as possible, he cross-references the notes to the known catalogs. He also developed a rarity system based on known notes but that is sometimes hard to get right due to a lack of printing records and current survivors.

In the book, he details as much history as possible of nineteen sieges of that period. Primarily taking place in Europe and Africa, he lists the sieges in alphabetical order. He describes each siege as to the length, the time period and place as well as the ‘winner.' He lists the known notes by denomination, variety and type with pictures as available.

 

At the back of the book, he has a list in alphabetical order of the sieges, as well. I personally would like to have a list of them by date order, as well. He also shows maps of where they occurred which was very helpful to me.

The book was very well written and informative. It has inspired me to go back and study more of each as I did not know of any of them. I would highly recommend it to anyone's numismatic library.

Siege Notes of the World 1453–1902 is available from the publisher, Kolbe & Fanning, at numislit.com for $70.00 (https://www.numislit.com/pages/books/7761/lawrence-c- korchnak/siege-notes-of-the-world-1793-1913).

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: SIEGE NOTES OF THE WORLD 1793–1913 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n48a02.html)
NEW BOOK: SIEGE COINS OF THE WORLD 1453-1902 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n27a04.html)

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