Albert Pick (2010)

Albert Pick is internationally recognized as the author of the first comprehensive catalogue of world banknotes and is widely credited with establishing the modern face of banknote collecting.

The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, first published in 1975, is based on earlier regional listings produced by Dr. Pick and is today the standard reference work for banknote collectors worldwide. The numbering system for identifying world paper money bears his name. Dr. Pick started collecting banknotes as a teenager in his native Germany in 1930. He later studied philosophy, literature and history, and by 1964, was working as the manager of a publishing house before dedicating himself to the study of paper money and becoming an acknowledged expert. When Dr. Pick’s private collection of (at that time) 180,000 notes became too extensive for a private collector, it was taken over by the Bayerische Hypotheken und Wechselbank, one of the largest German private banks. He continued to expand the collection as curator for the bank between 1964 and his retirement in 1985. Besides the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Dr. Pick published numerous books and received several international prizes and honors for his publications. Albert Pick died at the age of 93, on 22nd November 2015.