The Library · Toolkit
The toolkit.
The reference instruments the rest of the library depends on — the language for what you're looking at, and the method for going deeper than the surface.
Two kinds of tool
Language & MethodPillar One
The language
What things are called, in two languages, so the rest of the library reads cleanly.
Pillar Two
The method
What to read next, and how to use an archive when secondary sources aren't enough.
The four instruments
Two Glossaries · Two Research AidsGlossary of numismatic terms
The working vocabulary of South African collecting — proof, lustre, originality, mintmark, edge, die state, surface preservation, and several hundred other terms a serious reader will encounter in every catalogue.
Open the glossaryAfrikaans numismatic glossary
The same field, in Afrikaans. Many South African catalogues, references, and primary documents are written in or partly in Afrikaans — this is the bridge that makes them legible without losing precision.
Open the glossaryBibliography & further reading
The core works of South African numismatic literature — Hern, Engelbrecht, Mitchell, the SARB monographs, the auction catalogues that matter — annotated with what each one is actually for.
Open the bibliographyHow to use archives & libraries
Practical methodology for moving beyond secondary sources — the SARB archive, the National Archives, university special collections, and how to ask the right question of a primary document when you find one.
Open the research guide