Catalog-number decoder

Dealers, auction houses and society journals describe pieces by reference number, and every corner of the hobby has its own reference. Type a number as you found it and this page tells you which book it comes from.

The references

Abbreviations as they are commonly written, the book they stand for, what it numbers, where the numbers can be looked up online, and where to get the book: the publisher or society that sells it, or the free scan where the copyright has run out. None of these links pays us anything.

Abbreviation	Reference	What it numbers	Online lookup	Where to find it
`HK`	So-Called Dollars Harold E. Hibler and Charles V. Kappen. 1st ed., Coin and Currency Institute, 1963; 2nd ed. 2008, revised by Tom Hoffman, Dave Hayes, Jonathan Brecher and John Dean.	American commemorative, exposition and monetary medals of roughly 33 to 45 mm, from 1826 into the 1960s. The second edition added numbers above 1000 for pieces the first missed, and letter suffixes for varieties. as in `HK-449, HK-589a, HK-1016`	So-Called Dollars online, by HK number	Coin & Currency Institute, the publisher Second edition, in print.
`Rulau`, `R`	Standard Catalog of United States Tokens 1700–1900 Russell Rulau. Krause Publications: 1st ed. 1994, 2nd 1997, 3rd 1999, 4th 2004. Consolidates his earlier Early American Tokens, Hard Times Tokens, U.S. Merchant Tokens 1845–1860, U.S. Trade Tokens 1866–1889 and Tokens of the Gay Nineties.	American tokens of every kind from 1700 to 1900, arranged by period and then by state and city. The prefix tells you the period: `E` for early American, `HT` for Hard Times, state-city codes for the merchant and trade-token sections. as in `Rulau E-Pa 1, Rulau Pa-Ph 12, Rulau IL-EL-6`	Printed only	Out of print; search the Newman Portal All editions out of print; the fourth is the one to look for secondhand.
`HT`	Hard Times Tokens 1832–1844 Russell Rulau. Krause Publications, editions 1980 to 1996; then The Standard Catalog of Hard Times Tokens, 2001. A revision and enlargement of Lyman Low's 1899 list, and the same numbers appear inside the Standard Catalog of U.S. Tokens.	The political, satirical and merchant tokens of the Jackson and Van Buren years, 1832 to 1844, renumbered and expanded well beyond Low. The book carries a concordance to Low numbers. as in `HT-49, HT-293A`	Printed only	Out of print; search the Newman Portal Out of print.
`Low`, `L`	Hard Times Tokens Lyman Haynes Low. New York, published by the author, 1899; 2nd ed., revised and enlarged, 1900; supplement 1906. Reprinted 1955 and by Durst in 1978 and 1984.	The original 183-number list of Hard Times tokens. Low numbers are still quoted beside the Rulau HT numbers that replaced them. as in `Low 54, Low-54a`	1900 edition scanned on the Internet Archive	Free scan, Internet Archive 1900 edition.
`Fuld`, `F`	U.S. Civil War Store Cards, and Patriotic Civil War Tokens George and Melvin Fuld. Store Cards: 1st ed. Quarterman 1972, 3rd ed. Civil War Token Society 2014 (rev. John Ostendorf), 4th ed. 2024. Patriotics: 1st ed. Whitman 1960, 6th ed. Civil War Token Society 2018.	Civil War tokens of 1861 to 1865. Store cards are numbered by state, town, merchant and die pair; patriotics by obverse die, reverse die and a metal letter (`a` is copper). as in `F-OH165A-1a (a Cincinnati store card), F-1/391a (a patriotic)`	Civil War Token Society addenda to the current editions	Civil War Token Society bookstore Current editions, sold only by the society; members pay less.
`DH`, `D&H`, `Dalton & Hamer`, `Dalton and Hamer`	The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century Richard Dalton and Samuel H. Hamer. Issued in fourteen parts, 1910 to 1918; reprinted 1967, 1977, 1990 and 2004.	The British and Irish provincial copper tokens of 1787 to 1804, the Conder tokens, arranged by county with a running number inside each county and letters for die varieties. as in `DH Middlesex 1037, D&H Warwickshire 12a`	Printed only	Borrow on the Internet Archive Reprints out of print; the club's library page lists the free historical Conder books.
`AC`, `Atwood-Coffee`, `Atwood`	The Atwood-Coffee Catalogue of United States and Canadian Transportation Tokens American Vecturist Association. Roland Atwood's original 1958; 4th ed. 1983 by John M. Coffee Jr. and Harold V. Ford; 6th ed. 2007; 7th ed. 2016; 8th ed. 2023, edited by Joel Bernstein.	Transit, ferry, bridge and toll tokens of the United States and Canada. The number is a state abbreviation, a city number and a letter for each issue; Canadian entries use the province. Pueblo is `CO 760`. as in `AC NY 630 A, Atwood CO 760 G`	AVA catalog page; the PDF is free to members	American Vecturist Association Eighth edition; the PDF is free to members.
`DeWitt`	A Century of Campaign Buttons 1789–1889 J. Doyle DeWitt. Hartford, privately published, 1959.	Political campaign medalets, tokens, ferrotypes and lapel pieces, numbered by candidate initials, year and a serial. as in `DeWitt AL 1864-25, DeWitt WHH 1840-2`	Printed only	Borrow on the Internet Archive Out of print.
`Sullivan`	American Political Badges and Medalets 1789–1892 Edmund B. Sullivan. Quarterman Publications, 1981.	DeWitt's list revised and extended through 1892, same candidate-year-number format, with new numbers added for pieces DeWitt did not know. as in `Sullivan AL 1860-15, Sullivan GC 1884-7`	Printed only	Out of print; search the Newman Portal Out of print.
`Baker`	Medallic Portraits of Washington William Spohn Baker, Philadelphia, 1885. Revised by Russell Rulau and George Fuld as Medallic Portraits of Washington, Krause 1985; 2nd ed. 1999.	Every medal, token, store card and coin bearing George Washington. Baker's 651 numbers were kept by Rulau and Fuld, who added letters for varieties and new numbers above his. as in `Baker 61, Baker-114, Baker 61C`	1885 edition scanned on the Internet Archive	Free scan, Internet Archive 1885 edition; the Rulau-Fuld revision is out of print.
`Julian`	Medals of the United States Mint: The First Century 1792–1892 R. W. Julian, edited by N. Neil Harris. Token and Medal Society, 1977.	Medals struck by the Mint in its first hundred years, in classes with two-letter codes: `IP` Indian peace, `PR` presidential, `MI` military, `NA` naval, `CM` commemorative, `LS` life saving, `AC` Assay Commission, `PE` personal, and others. as in `Julian IP-3, Julian PR-12, Julian CM-20`	Printed only	Borrow on the Internet Archive Out of print.
`Betts`	American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals C. Wyllys Betts, edited by Frederic H. Betts, William T. R. Marvin and Lyman H. Low. Scott Stamp and Coin Co., 1894. Reprinted 1970 and 1972; companion volume by Christopher McDowell, ANS 2022.	European and American medals relating to the Americas from about 1556 to 1783, in nine chronological periods: 623 numbers. as in `Betts-400, Betts 615 (Libertas Americana)`	1894 edition scanned on the Internet Archive	American Numismatic Society store The 1894 book is a free scan; McDowell's Early Betts Medal Companion (2022) is sold by the ANS.
`Loubat`	The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776–1876 J. F. Loubat, with etched plates by Jules Jacquemart. New York, published by the author, 1878; reprinted 1967.	The eighty-six medals voted by Congress and the other national medals of the first century, numbered 1 to 86. as in `Loubat 1, Loubat 86`	Volume one scanned on the Internet Archive; also on Project Gutenberg	Free text, Project Gutenberg Also scanned on the Internet Archive.
`Eimer`, `E`	British Commemorative Medals and their Values Christopher Eimer. Seaby, 1987; 2nd ed. Spink, 2010, about 2,200 medals.	British commemorative and historical medals from the sixteenth century to the present, in one running sequence. as in `Eimer 1001, E. 1047`	Printed only	The author Second edition, in print.
`BHM`	A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760–1960 Laurence Brown. Vol. I, George III to William IV, Seaby 1980; Vol. II, Victoria, 1987; Vol. III, Edward VII to 1960, Spink 1995.	British historical medals from 1760 to 1960, one running number across the three volumes. as in `BHM 1234`	Printed only	Spink's book department Volumes come and go; otherwise secondhand.
`Edkins`	Edkins' Catalogue of United States Coal Company Store Scrip Donald O. Edkins for the National Scrip Collectors Association. 1st ed. 1977; 4th ed. Vol. I (all states but West Virginia) 2015, with Garrett Salyers and Mike Williams; Vol. II, West Virginia.	Coal and lumber company scrip tokens by state, county and company, with a serial for each company and a letter-number for each piece, plus rarity ratings. Colorado material would be in Volume I. as in `Edkins WV-2345-A5`	NSCA revisions and updates to the listings	National Scrip Collectors Association The association publishes and sells it.
`Schenkman`	Civil War Sutler Tokens and Cardboard Scrip David E. Schenkman. Jade House, 1983; 2nd ed. 2014, edited by Richard W. Irons.	Tokens and cardboard scrip issued by the sutlers who followed Union and Confederate regiments, numbered by state, regiment, denomination and metal; the unattributed series is prefixed `US`. as in `Schenkman NY-A5-25B, Schenkman US-119-25WM`	Printed only	Out of print; search the Newman Portal Second edition 2014; ask the Civil War Token Society or a numismatic bookseller.
`King`	Lincoln in Numismatics Robert P. King, serialized in The Numismatist from February 1924 with supplements to 1933; reprinted by the Token and Medal Society 1966 and by Durst 1985. Superseded by Paul Cunningham's Lincoln's Metallic Imagery, which carries a concordance.	Medals, tokens and related pieces portraying Abraham Lincoln. as in `King 504, King-1055`	The original Numismatist issues, full view on the Newman Portal	Free, The Numismatist on the Newman Portal The 1924–1933 serial; the reprints are out of print.
`Kappen`	California Tokens Charles V. Kappen. Token and Medal Society, 1976; supplement 1998.	California merchant and trade tokens, by town. as in `Kappen 1234`	Printed only	Out of print; search the Newman Portal Out of print.
`Pritchard`	A Guide to Colorado Merchant Trade Tokens Stuart M. Pritchard Jr. Jinglebob Press, Louisville, Colorado, 2004.	Colorado trade tokens by town. Numbers are a two-letter town code and a serial: `PU` Pueblo, `DE` Denver, `TR` Trinidad, `LA` Lamar and so on. The current standard; see our Pueblo page. as in `Pritchard PU130, Pritchard DE2165-25`	Printed only	Out of print; copies turn up from Colorado dealers and online.
`CMT`	Colorado Merchants' Tokens James R. Wright with Herbert Lee Nott (earlier with Don Cary). Self-published 1973, with supplements in 1977 and 1979 continuing the numbers.	The earlier Colorado trade-token catalog. CMT numbers survive in auction descriptions from the 1980s and 1990s; Pritchard replaced them in 2004. as in `CMT L3840`	Printed only	Out of print; secondhand only.
`TC`	TokenCatalog.com record number Richard Greever's online database, continuously updated by contributors.	Not a book: a TC number is the record number of a token in the TokenCatalog database, which holds more than 700,000 listings with issuer attributions where contributors have found them. as in `TC-308745`	TokenCatalog; search by state and town, or by TC number	Online only Free to browse.
`Zerbe`, `Z`	Zerbe numbers for Lesher Referendum dollars Farran Zerbe, "Private Silver Coins Issued in the United States: The Lesher or Referendum Pieces," American Journal of Numismatics 51, 1917.	The eighteen varieties of Joseph Lesher's 1900 and 1901 Colorado silver dollars, numbered Z-1 to Z-18. They run parallel to HK-787 to 797 and HK-1016 to 1021a. as in `Zerbe 8, Z-13`	Our Lesher page, with the full HK and Zerbe concordance	Free scan, Internet Archive AJN volumes 51–53. Leonard, Hallenbeck and Wilde's 2017 book is in print from Arcadia Publishing.
`SOM`	Society of Medalists issue number The subscription series of American art medals, 1930 to 1995, issue by issue.	Each Society of Medalists issue, from SOM-1 (Laura Gardin Fraser's Hunter and Grouse, 1930) to the last in 1995, with the special issues and variants. as in `SOM-1, SOM 64`	Every issue listed at Medallic Art Collector	Online only The series itself is collected, not bought as a book.
`Marqusee`	One Hundred Years of American Medallic Art, 1845–1945: The John E. Marqusee Collection Susan Luftschein. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1995.	The four hundred and more American art medals in the Marqusee collection, now at Cornell, in catalog order. as in `Marqusee 150`	Listed by Marqusee number at Medallic Art Collector	Out of print; the listings are online at Medallic Art Collector.
`Failor`, `Failor-Hayden`	Medals of the United States Mint Issued for Public Sale Kenneth M. Failor and Eleonora Hayden. U.S. Treasury, 1969; revised 1972; later Mint reprints.	The medals the Mint sells to the public, presidential, secretarial, military and commemorative, under the three-digit Mint list numbers that the Mint's own catalogs still use. as in `Failor 703, Mint list 101`	Printed only	Borrow on the Internet Archive Out of print.
`Storer`	Numismatics of Massachusetts Malcolm Storer. Massachusetts Historical Society, 1923; reprinted by Quarterman, 1981.	Massachusetts medals, tokens and related pieces in one running sequence; the Pilgrim Tercentenary medals, for instance, are Storer 1558 to 1563. as in `Storer 1558`	1981 reprint scanned on the Internet Archive	Free scan, Internet Archive 1981 reprint.
`Wright`	The American Store or Business Cards Dr. Benjamin P. Wright, serialized in The Numismatist 1898 to 1901; collected by the Token and Medal Society 1963 and reissued as American Business Tokens, Quarterman 1972.	Nineteenth-century American merchant store cards, with rarity ratings. as in `Wright 121, Wright 1702`	The 1898–1901 Numismatist issues on the Newman Portal	Borrow on the Internet Archive The 1898–1901 serial is free on the Newman Portal.
`Adams-Bentley`, `Adams`	Comitia Americana and Related Medals John W. Adams and Anne E. Bentley. George Frederick Kolbe, 2007.	The Congressional medals of the Revolution, the Libertas Americana and the diplomatic medals, with die and variety analysis. Cited alongside Betts numbers. as in `Adams-Bentley 2`	Printed only	Out of print; ask Kolbe & Fanning or a numismatic bookseller.
`Vlack`	Vlack numbers Robert A. Vlack. Early American Coins (1965; 2nd ed. 1974) for the imitation British halfpence; An Illustrated Catalogue of the French Billon Coinage in the Americas, Colonial Coin Collectors Club, 2004.	Two series. The imitation George III halfpence of 1771 to 1788, numbered by obverse and by a reverse code of date and letter; and the French colonial billon for the Americas. as in `Vlack 10-77A, Vlack 24`	Printed only	Colonial Coin Collectors Club The French billon catalog, with the club's dealer link. Early American Coins is out of print.
`Jaeger`	A Guide Book of United States Tokens and Medals; 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens Katherine Jaeger, Whitman 2008; Katherine Jaeger and Q. David Bowers, Whitman 2007.	Illustrated overviews rather than numbering systems; both cite HK, Baker, Julian and the rest. The 100 Greatest ranks its pieces 1 to 100, and dealers occasionally quote the rank. as in `100 Greatest no. 12`	Printed only	Whitman Publishing In print.

Missing one? Dealers coin new shorthand all the time. Send us the abbreviation and where you saw it.