BanknoteArchives.com Search Tips

Search Tips

The BanknoteArchives search works like most Web search engines that you've probably used. But we've included a few customizations and features that are especially useful for searching auction records.

The quality of your search results is directly related to the quality of your search input. For that reason, it makes sense to spend some time studying this page to learn as much as possible about the features of BanknoteArchives.

Contents

1. General Advice

2. Search Modes

3. Advanced Features and Operators

1. General Advice

When starting with BanknoteArchives, it's good to keep some points in mind:

Think like a cataloger

Our databases contain the original text from auction catalogs. Therefore, it's helpful to think about how a numismatic cataloger might describe a particular banknote.

For example, they might list a denomination, date, issuing authority, and reference number. They will probably abbreviate some words, and they are likely to use very specific terminology (very rarely general terms).

Consider multiple languages

BanknoteArchives contains auctions from all over the world, with records in English, German, French, Spanish, Czech, and Polish, among others. We have a built-in thesaurus that will automatically translate many common numismatic terms to help you.

To get the best results, consider that you may need to do multiple searches in different languages. If possible, try to use a term that will have a partial match in many languages.

Example: Typing in BANQ will match "Banque" (French), "Banco" (Spanish and Portuguese), and "Bank" (English and German). ban → bank, banque, banco dol → dollar, dollars pes → peso, pesos

Use unique and universal search terms

To maximize your search results, and to avoid problems with language differences, you might try using a unique or non-language specific search term. Consider the following language-independent items frequently used in auction descriptions:

Issuing authority or institution names as printed on the note, e.g. BANQUE DE FRANCE or DEUTSCHE REICHSBANK
Issue dates, series years, or signature dates printed on the note
Denominations and currency units, e.g. 100 Pesos or 5 Mark
Catalog reference numbers from standard banknote references, e.g. Pick 235 or P-123a
Signature names of officials appearing on the note, which are often unchanged across languages

When using banknote reference numbers in your searches, please note that auction houses tend to use different citation styles for reference works. To account for this, you might try including the reference number only and leaving out the reference name entirely. Sometimes you need only a ruler name or date, along with a reference number, to find exactly the records you need.

To find good examples of unique search terms, check auction catalogs to see how banknotes are attributed and cited.

2. Search Modes

You can choose from two different search modes when using BanknoteArchives: the default mode, simple search, and the legacy (old-style) mode, Boolean search.

You can switch between the modes by selecting "Search options" below the BanknoteArchives search box and choosing the mode you prefer.

Simple Search

The BanknoteArchives simple search mode is the one we recommend for most users. It's the easiest and most flexible search mode.

Just type in a few terms separated by spaces, and BanknoteArchives will find banknote lots that match all of those terms, no matter where they appear in the record. Here are a few important notes about how the simple search works:

Partial terms (automatic term expansion)

BanknoteArchives will match any records that have words beginning with your search terms. In other words, we perform automatic wildcarding of all search terms.

Example: A search for Hadrian will match records with Hadrian and Hadrianus and Hadrianopolis. A search for den will match auction lots containing the words denar, denarius, denier, etc.

All terms must match

By default, BanknoteArchives will return results only if they match all of your search terms.

If this is not the case, BanknoteArchives will tell you that it can't find an exact match and will instead show you the closest matches it could find. This is usually an indication that you should retry your search with different or fewer terms.

Exact phrase

If you want to search for an exact phrase, put that part of your query in quotes:

Example: denarius "Marcus Antonius" will find all auction lots that include the word "denarius" and the exact phrase "Marcus Antonius."

Boolean (Legacy) Search

The Boolean (old-style) search mode supports the Boolean AND and NOT operators and uses special rules for processing the search terms. It has all the same features as our simple search -- only the syntax is different.

The Boolean search works the same way as the simple search described above, except for the following differences:

Exact phrase is assumed

When you search for several terms separated by spaces, only records with words in this exact order will be found. (This is the same behavior as using quotes in the simple search.)

Example: BANQUE NATIONALE DE BELGIQUE will match any lot description that contains that exact printed text.

Find multiple terms with "and"

You can use the and operator to include more than one search term. The search engine will find those terms located anywhere within the lot description.

Example: Banque and 100 will match any lot that contains both the word "Banque" and the denomination "100" anywhere in its description.

To narrow this search even further, you could add additional terms with the and operator.

Example: France and Franc and 1920 will match any lot that contains all three terms anywhere in its description.

Exclude terms with "not"

If you want to exclude a term or phrase, use the not operator before it.

Example: Banque and 100 not specimen will match any lot description that contains both the word "Banque" and the denomination "100", but exclude those that contain the word "specimen".

Example: France and 235 not PMG will match any lot that contains the word "France" and reference number "235", but exclude those that are graded by PMG.

3. Advanced Features and Operators

In addition to the examples above, there are some other features that you can access by using special operators or symbols. We strongly recommend that you use the simple search mode when including these operators.

Exclude terms with negation

If you want to exclude a single term, use the minus - symbol before it.

Example: Banque -specimen will match any lot that has the word "Banque" and does not have the word "specimen".

Make terms optional with an OR operator

If you want to search for two or more different terms in a single search, then separate them with the pipe | symbol.

Example: Germany Mark|Pfennig will match any lot that has the word "Germany" and either the word "Mark" or the word "Pfennig".

Group terms with parentheses

You can group more than one term so that operators apply to several of them.

Example: Germany -(specimen|overprint|proof) will match any lot that has the word "Germany" and does not have the words "specimen," "overprint," or "proof."