Peter Alan Rayner

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Peter Alan Rayner (8 December 1924 – 29 July 2007) was a British writer and expert on coins. He preferred to be called Alan Rayner to avoid confusion with another coin author, Peter Seaby. He grew up in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, attended St George's School, and during World War II worked as a Bevin Boy in the mines before joining the Intelligence Corps due to illness.

In 1948 he joined B.A. Seaby Limited in the English Coin Department, focusing on milled silver coins. In 1954 he published a 26-page booklet, The Designers and Engravers of the English Milled Coinage 1662-1953, describing the engravers on each coin. In 1957 he helped prepare a revised edition of English Silver Coinage from 1649 by Herbert Allen Seaby, a work that remained a key reference and was updated many times, with editions continuing into 2021. The book uses the ESC numbering system for English silver coinage.

Rayner also wrote Your Book of Coin Collecting (1961) and Coin Collecting For Amateurs (1966). He stayed with Seaby's until 1974, then joined the English branch of Paramount, where his knowledge of silver coins and foreign coins, especially German ones, was highly valued. He is survived by his Swiss wife Madeleine, who inspired him to learn Swiss German, four children (Christopher, Peter, Hester, John) and eight grandchildren.