ABSTRACT
As with the magazines and journals, there are two kinds of collectors' guide book. Firstly, those such as Lyle's and Miller's are commercial guides, with prices based on auction realisations. It is these which are the most referred to by dealers. The second category are those, like the Golly Handbook, which have been published by collectors, frustrated with the lack of reference sources on their chosen subject commercially available. These guides are published both privately, as in the case cited here, and sold through collectors' clubs and by word of mouth, and commercially, when possible. Often, guides originated by collectors are a culmination of previous efforts. Gollies have always been collectable; prices for them started to increase in the late 1970s, and articles appeared on them from the early 1980s (R.M., 1981). A regular page, 'Robertson's Round Up', appeared in the Badger, magazine ofthe Badge Collectors' Circle, which evolved into a 'Golly Checklist'. Finally a New Golly Collectors' Club was formed. Such publications are used as checklists by collectors for their collections. As with the collectors' magazines, they offer the professional and the social researcher useful information on the extent and variation of issue, and a wealth of contextual and historical background.
