Apart from regular reports on fluctuations in the stock market, the BBC at the time broadcast little in the way of analysis of the intricacies of the financial markets. But in 1971, when a long postal workers’ strike badly affected the City of London, Duggleby commissioned a piece on it for The World Tonight, and in 1973 he created The Financial World Tonight, with himself at the helm – the start of business programming on Radio 4.
In a blog, Bill Rogers, a friend and former colleague, recalled Duggleby telling him that he had gone out and bought at least a dozen of the same grey suit, storing them in his garage, reasoning that though inflation was on the up, he was unlikely to change size. In 1989, when The Financial World Tonight moved to an earlier slot on Radio 4, Duggleby hosted the Financial Week on Fridays.
In 1975 Duggleby published English Paper Money, an essential guide for collectors now in its 10th edition, in which he listed all banknotes produced by the Bank of England from 1694, plus forgeries and publicity “skits”, and included such fascinating details as the fact that there were half-crown notes issued up to 1941, and that between 1797 and 1829 618 people were hanged for forgery of paper money. In 1984, with Louise Botting, he published Making the Most of Your Money.
As well as his work on the BBC, during the 1980s Duggleby was a regular contributor to the Telegraph’s Family Money-Go-Round column; he later wrote on personal finance for The Independent. He also served on the Royal Mint Advisory Committee and on the Council of the Royal Philatelic Society, of which he became treasurer and then vice president.
In 2005 when Duggleby was appointed MBE for services to financial services, he joked that it stood for “Money Box Expertise”: “That is what I hope we have brought to the public. It is very pleasing that it should be recognised.”
In his Who’s Who entry Duggleby listed his recreations as philately, classical jazz and genealogy, and in 2005 he published Days Beyond Recall: a brief history of the Duggleby family.
In 1964 he married Elizabeth Frost, who survives him with their two daughters.
Vincent Duggleby, born January 23 1939, died June 7 2024