Sadly, the founder of Rotographic, Belgravia Press and the author of most of the Rotographic titles up to his semi-retirement from publishing in 2004, has passed away aged 87.
I will always be very grateful to him for building up Rotographic and then allowing me to take the reigns in 2004.
His legacy, which is something very few are able to achieve, is that during his lifetime he was able to educate millions and that more importantly, he was able to inspire thousands. I know that there are many people still active in the field of numismatics, from academics to hobby-collectors that all started their journey as grubby handed youngsters, their tongues poked out in concentration, ticking off their coins in his little booklets!
Richard was an avid collector of Military Money and possessed a fine collection of Military notes and also a good representative collection of Bank of England banknotes, including errors and other scarce types.
I always used to send him copies of the new books, which usually met with his approval (over email, he wasn’t one to shy away from new communication methods)! This year I waited for the new Decimal Coins of the UK to be finished before sending it together with the annual CCGB last week (May 2014). Yesterday it was returned by the post office marked that the addressee was no longer at that address. I contacted Mick Warner, his former business partner and he informed me that he had passed away.
This post will remain here in memorium. If anyone who knew him or was inspired by him would like to share any memories or add anything, please contact me and I’ll publish the words here.