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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