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Precious Metal: Investing & Collecting in Today’s Silver Gold & Platinum Markets, published by Whitman Publishing is a great resource if you are interested in investing (however much we hate the word) in any types of coins, bullion or numismatic.
Hello, everyone! Today I will be writing a book review of, “The Mega Red: 7th Edition” by R.S. Yeoman. This is a great book and is extremely helpful if you need to quickly look up some information about a coin, including its mintage, value, and grade. This is an awesome book for all collectors, new and experienced, as it talks about the basics of certain coins as well as more advanced aspects of the coins, including varieties and grading.
A few weeks ago I got a shipment of books from the ANA library, one of which was about Silver and Gold Chinese panda coins. As you may already know, these coins are my favorite coins and that may be why I took a liking to this book and would like to share things about it.
The other day I was at my coin dealer and he had set aside this coin for me. He knows I like error coins so he grabbed this baby for me. What I have here is an off center struck Lincoln Memorial Cent.
I recently checked this book out from the library, and couldn't wait to read and review it. If you are considering buying this book, just know it is $120.
Coin Collecting 101: What You Need To Know by Alan Herbert is great. Mr. Herbert has had his articles published by Coin World for multiple years, and although the book is a little outdated (it was published in 2005) it is still a great resource with good information with facts still relevant today.
With nineteen chapters and three hundred and five pages, Richard Giedroyc knows what he's doing when it comes to coin collecting. This book for both beginners and advanced collectors alike is worth every minute you spend reading it. He first goes over the basics we all know: Important coin collecting vocabulary (what IS a numismatist anyways?), storing and handling coins (ALWAYS BY THE EDGE), and the social aspects of the hobby (WHY haven't you joined a coin club yet?). This covers the first four chapters.
American State Quarters: The DEFINITIVE GUIDEBOOK to COLLECTING STATE QUARTERS, by David L. Ganz, is a must read for any numismatist interested in collecting State quarters casually as a circulated set or as an investment as a set registry set. A driving force in the founding of circulating commemoratives, David Ganz gives a unique view at the history, founding, and legislation of State Quarters. This part of the book is very dense, but gives a lot of interesting background as Ganz served on the CACC. David Ganz then gives an excellent five-page overview of the mintage process and a brief history of coins. He moves to the collecting and investing part of State Quarters, how grading affects the value and mint errors. The next part of the book is on the individual coins, where he spends about three pages per state discussing the state, its design, designers, design history and mintage. The second section of the quarter listings is outdated on the copy I picked up from my local library, as it was copyrighted 2008 (the second edition), but David Ganz goes through the price records, error values, and finally a very useful guide on grading one of the 50 issues. He concludes each listing with an investment potential, what grade it is considered an investment, and the potential of circulation finds. Because it is outdated, some of the price guide is dramatically off, but it can still be used as a general marker on what year's errors are especially valuable. Overall this book is a must-read on 50 State Quarters, and a 4 out of 5 star book.
If you buy collectable gold coins, Bill Fivaz’s Official Whitman Guidebook: United States Gold Counterfeit Detection Guide should be a vital part of your numismatic library. Bill Fivaz begins with rules of thumb and definitions to avoid buying raw counterfeit gold coins, a few of them are: weak/fatty letters, numerous depressions, tool marks and spikes, under/over weight coins. These rules can go for any coins that may be counterfeited. After giving a brief glossary of terms and abbreviations used throughout the book, Fivaz moves on to examples of counterfeit coins. Throughout the book he gives over 200 examples of commonly counterfeited coins and die markers for finding them. Although most of the coins he covers are key dates, Fivaz comments on certain dies that were used to counterfeit numerous gold coins. He covers coins from $1 coins to $20 gold coins, as well as commemoratives and territorial gold. Fivaz finishes with the tolerated weights and specifications of U.S. gold coins, as well as characteristics commonly found on genuine gold coins that can be mistaken as evidence of alterations. After reading this book, I have a much deeper appreciation for professional graders, and how they take much of the guesswork out of buying valuable coins. Overall I would give this book a perfect rating as it can give a buyer a sense of confidence in buying gold coins.
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