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In 1840 Great Britain became the first government to issue an adhesive stamp for the prepayment of postal fees. The United States issued its first stamps in 1847 and by the mid‐1850s postage stamps were an international phenomenon. The popularity of collecting and studying postage stamps increased accordingly. The term “philatelie” (subsequently anglicized to “philately”) was coined by Frenchman M. Georges Herpin in the 15 November 1864 issue of Collectionneur de Timbres‐Poste, where he combined the Greek words philos (loving, fond) and atelia (free from tax or charge, exempt from payment, franked) and declared “Philately therefore signifies love of everything related to franking.”

Numismatics, the systematic study and collecting of coins and related items such as tokens, medals, and paper money, has been a recognized scholarly discipline since the Middle Ages. Archaeologists, historians, economists, artists, and engravers have found numismatics a valuable adjunct to their respective fields of study. Coins are the official product of an issuing authority, and as such they can provide an important primary historical source of documentation concerning monetary values, patterns of economic exchange, trade routes, colonization, migration, military campaigns, linguistic and epigraphic data, mythology, religion, art, historical portraits, and views of buildings, monuments, and statues that have long since been destroyed. For the researcher in American history, numismatics can provide insights into historical economic trends.

This index accompanies the index that appeared in Reference Services Review 16:4 (1988). As noted in the introduction to that index, the articles in RSR that deal with specific reference titles can be grouped into two categories: those that review specific titles (to a maximum of three) and those that review titles pertinent to a specific subject or discipline. The index in RSR 16:4 covered the first category; it indexed, by title, all titles that had been reviewed in the “Reference Serials” and the “Landmarks of Reference” columns, as well as selected titles from the “Indexes and Indexers,” “Government Publications,” and “Special Feature” columns of the journal.