Abstract: This review article highlights advances made in abiotic anion coordination chemistry in 1999. The structure of this review is similar to the previous review in this series that covered 1997 and 1998. The first section examines anion receptors that do not contain metal ions. This is followed by a review of metal containing anion receptors in which the metal can function as: (i) a coordination site for the anion; (ii) an organisational element in anion receptor; and (iii) a sensor. Examples of the role of anions in directing the self-assembly of complex molecular architectures are presented in the final section. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved