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.

   This book is a must have for anybody that is interested in collecting or studying obsolete paper currency between the years 1782-1866. It is written by Q. David Bowers with a forward by the late Eric P. Newman. These men are two of the greatest numismatists to have lived, in my opinion. They both are personal heroes of mine. The passing of Mr. Newman was a sad day for our hobby. This book takes us back through a time when our country had more than 100,000 different combinations of denomination and design for circulating notes at one time. It was so bad, that banks and merchants handling money, had books and pamphlets with hundreds of pages telling them how to identify counterfeits and value guides of all the different currencies. The first chapter covers Early American Paper Money. It ends on chapter 21 with Obsolete Bank Notes: A State-by-State-Guide.

I recently, 17 April, put up a blog on my Mexican Un Peso Caballito. It received some nice comments with a few people never hearing about this famous coin. So I thought I'd put up a blog on my main reference book about it. This blog is going to be a short one on my feelings about the book. If you want a more detailed review I suggest you go to Amazon. The author is Allan Schein and the entire book is written in English and Spanish. If one is interested in the Caballito coin this is a must have reference book. The illustrations and photos are numerous and very beautiful and clear. It goes over the varieties of the coin with clear examples. One also learns a great deal about the designer Charles Pillet and illustrates some of his other works on coins and medals. It is simply "THE" book on  Belleza Mexicana/Mexican Beauty one should read before you spend your money on a coin to learn what it could be. Thanks for reading!

While reading a resent article in the ANA's Numismatist or was it a Coin World, I so enjoyed the article that I checked out the author. It was James R. Clifford. I researched him and found he also wrote a novel. It's called Double Daggers. I read the book and highly recommend it. It's a great read when you want to stay in the field of numismatics but need a break from pure facts. In short, the story follows the path of the Eid Mar coin. Though fiction there is a lot of historic fact inside. You might give it a try.