Information about reference source: Collectors Coins Great Britain

Coin Publications was formed as "Rotographic" in 1959 by Richard John Marles (1925-2013) in Torquay, Devon, UK. Initially, equipped with printing machinery, they took on local print jobs and were also known as Belgravia Press, after the Belgravia Hotel, which at the time was owned by Mr Marles’ parents. The name "Rotographic" was contrived from the words ‘Rotogravure’ and ‘Lithographic’, names of two prevalent printing techniques at the time.

Before decimalisation, (when it was possible to find coins dating back to 1816 in your change) Rotographic produced a number of price-guide reference books, including the very popular little booklet "Check your Change", which was produced from 1965 to 1970.

In late 1973, "Rotographic" introduced the first edition of “Collectors’ Coins England” (still in print as “Collectors’ Coins Great Britain“), which contained value listings, variety information etc. for all British coins, just like its predecessor “Check your Change”, but this time with a much wider date range of 1760 - 1972. With the success of the new title, Rotographic were able to expand the range of titles and during the 1980’s and early 1990’s the Collectors’ Coins Ireland, Collectors’ Banknotes and several other new titles were added to the repertoire. Rotograpic books were the first to list coins by date, rather than by reign – something which has been copied by others over the years. Rotographic were also the first to include details of a lot of important varieties, many of which continue to be left out by other publishers.

Throughout the late 1990’s into the 21st Century the volume of sales was steady and many of the titles were renewed annually or bi-annually. In 2004 Mr Marles decided it was probably about time he retired from full time publishing and printing, aged 78, and sold the names and rights to Chris Perkins.

In 2018 the publishing imprint "Coin Publications" was established and from that time on all the books on collectables are published under that name.

Buy Collectors' Coins: Great Britain 2018 British Pre-Decimal Coins 1760 - 1970 from Amazon.
Buy Collectors' Coins: Decimal Issues of the United Kingdom 1968 - 2017 from Amazon.