catalogue news - november
TRANSCRIPT
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8/9/2019 Catalogue News - November
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THIS MONTH WE BRING MORE NEWS OF RECENT CATALOGUES
A new style catalogue has come out which
owes a lot to the French idea of providing
a 'simplified' pocket-size price list.
This catalogue claims to contain all the
Dutch holographic (optical) and chip cards
that have been produced for the domestic
market from the first issue in t 986
(excluded are 'data-base' cards, test,
service and chip cards made for export).
The text is in Dutch, with an introduction by
Robin Braaf, chairman of the Algemene
Telefoonkaarten Club who produced the
catalogue. However, and surprisingly forsuch a small publication, the compilers
have managed to include English, French
and German translations of the Users'
Guide.
This publication is very much in the
style of a 'simplified' catalogue and
excludes information about control
numbers or chip modules, for example. The
publishers do, however, promise that this
sort of detail will be included in future
editions, should readers require it.
There are two indexes (one for each
type of card) and these list alphabetically,
by title, all the cards in the appropriate
category: for each entry, the type of card
(e.g. advertising), and whether or not there
is printing on both sides, is given, as well
as its catalogue number. However, in order
to be able to use the index effectively, you
need to know the name of the card in
Dutch. Otherwise, you have to judge the
position of a particular card by its serial
number or (In the case of Chip cards), by its
approximate date of issue.
The body of the catalogue contains full-
colour illustrations of every card in chrono-
logical order. Entries contain catalogue
number, title/description of the card, codes
for the type of card! number of sides
printed/issuer (if not rrn, production run,mint value and a guide category (from 1 to
5) for the value of used cards.
Even though this catalogue contains
only basic information, a key to the entries
would have been helpful, as would a better
idea of the market value of used cards.Also, the illustrations are so small that, in
some cases, it is difficult to identity a card
without a magnifying glass. Indeed,
scanning the pages to find a particular illus-
tration (when you don't know the card's
name or its issue date) is difficult.
Nevertheless, this is a very useful publi-
cation for anyone who would like to
arrange a small collection of Dutch cards in
order, or who needs to get an idea of the
cards' prices. It is also an invaluable aid to
anyone going to a fair or card market - just
what you need to have in your handbag or
pocket when you are about to delve into all
those Dutch cards at the bottom of a
dealers 'cheap' box!
Algemene Telefoonkaarten Catalogus,
1st edition, published by ATC,
Purmerend (no ISBN). 128pp., price:
fl17.50/ 16.50/ BF350/ DM 17.50/ FF55
(but free to members of the ATC).
Postage:11.50 extra.
URMET
This is the latest edition of the Urmet cata-
logue and it has been produced to mark the
company's 60th anniversary: the number of
countries to use the Urmet system has been
increasing and, as we have already
reported, the company recently bought
Daruma of Brazil (who make inductive
cards). Many people still think that Urmet is
a card manufacturer. However, while they
hold the patent for the design of the cards,
the company is actually a producer of tele-
phones (which is why so many Urmet cards
show illustrations of phones).
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IT C November 1997
This catalogue covers all the countries
using the Urmet patent magnetic card
machines (they also now make chip-card
telephones), except Italy - which will move
away from the use of this type of card in
1999.
The countries now included in the cata-
logue are:
Albania,
Argentina,
Armenia,
Bangladesh,
Belarus,
Bolivia,
Egypt,
Liberia.
Lithuania,
Myanmar,
Pakistan,
Poland,
Russia (t 5 operators),
San Marino,
Sierra Leone,
South Africa,
Tunisia,
Turkey,
Uzbekistan,
Vatican City.
Apart from Russia, Poland and the
Vatican, the number of cards for each
country are still very small.
Although Italy is always identified with
Urmet cards, due to the huge volume now
produced for Telecom Italia it was, in fact,
ten years after Italy introduced phone
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cards, that the first Italian Urmet cards
appeared. Apart from Italy, the earliest
countries to use Urmet-type cards were
Egypt (in t 985) and Turkey (in t 989) and,
while the issues for some countries have
been tiny, the total number of Urmet cards
to have been produced is expected to
reach 1,000 million by the end of this year.
This catalogue has, again, been
compiled by Riccardo Mourglia (whom
many readers will remember from his
contributions to ITC).The text is in English,
with reasonable-size full-colour reproduc-
tions of the cards. Each entry gives a cata-
logue number (using the standard 'D' for
definitive, 'T' for test and so on), the Italian
catalogue number (where appropriate),
face value, production date, manufacturer,
title of card, production figure and mint
and used values (the 'value' columns are
mostly left blank!). There is also a section
with non-telephone, closed-user group,
multi-function and chip cards.
This is a handy catalogue - we
described the first edition as being espe-
cially useful for getting information on
some of the more 'difficult' countries and
this is still the case.
With the catalogue comes a special
Urmet 60th Anniversary 5,000 Lira phone
card.
Urmet Telephone Cards, t 997 edition, by
R. Mourglla. Published by C&'C
Publishers, Turin. (no price or ISBN).
72pp.
ANDORRA
Regular readers may be surprised to see
this catalogued reviewed here: after all, we
covered the (then new) Andorran cata-
logue in January. Not so. Another (undated)
edition has appeared. It seems to have
come out just a few months later, as it
covers cards only up to early t 997."
This is an official catalogue from a tele-
phone company, showing both public and
private issues, as well as a single GSM card.
The illustrations are in full colour and almost
full size. For each issue, the date of issue is
supplied. the title of the card is given in five
languages, and there are details of the face
value, manufacturer, number of units and
production run.
With only four cards per page,
this pocket-size catalogue is presented
very clearly and, as the country is so
small. it is easy to find any specific card.
Indeed considering how few cards there
are, the numbering scheme seems rather
complicated: for example, '9701 PY61,
indicates that the card came out in
January 1997 and is a 50-unit public
card and was the 61 st to appear. No values
are given.
Teletarges d'Andorra, published by STA
(Servelde Telecomunlcaclonsd'Andorra,
I t 997)). Issued free, 42 pp.
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ITC November 1997