How many of you have a decent coin library?

ANACONDA

How many of you have a decent coin library?

Wondo

Don't count me in. I have a Red Book, Breen's Encyclopedia, Doung Winter's Lib $20 series and Reiver's Early Dollars books.

pursuitofliberty

What qualifies as decent?

I have a dozen or so books, a half a dozen or so catalogs, about 80? numismatist's, a few grey and blue sheets from the 80's, 90's and 00's ... several old mag's with articles I liked ...

RYK

I have Redbook, Photograde, ANA grading guide, all of Doug Winters' books on gold coins (some duplicates), about half of David Bowers' large books, 2 small Breen monographs from the '60's, few old Max Mehl catalogs, and Norweb, Bass, Garrett, and James Stacks auction catalogs, and most of the Heritage, B&M, ANR, and Superior catalogs of the last 2 plus years. I have been more active in buying books and auction catalogs than I have been buying coins in last several months.

coppercoins

A couple hundred volumes of work, most having to do with copper. I'm happy with it....more than I can read in a lifetime, but I use them mainly for spot reference when researching or writing an article.

mrearlygold

couple dozen bannana boxes ful in addition to my "daily" library

Tom

Bear

I have 19 coin reference books in my collection.

Louis

I have approximately 40 coin books.

merz2

I do on the series I collect.

Shamika

I've have a fair library. I love coin books.

FatMan

Not great but a decent library. 15 Books, NN, CW, Numismatist, and many auction catalogs.

RickMilauskas

I have about 20 books... mostly concerning Morgan/Peace dollars, Washington quarters, and Scott Traverse books.
I find I keep reading sections of them to "further my education."

foodude

I have over 200 US coin books, plus a lot of auction catalogs.

dbldie55

What is a decent library? I have dozens (and dozens) of books laying aroung all over the place. Still trying to find the best way to organize them.

UncleWiggly

I can't seem to get a grip on this buy the book before the coin concept. If I did, I'd have a whole lot of unread books around. But I think I have at least a good start. 100 Greatest Coins, The DL Richmond Part I Catalog, a copied article on 20 centers, article out of Coin and Stamp mag about the certified coin market crash and my favorite, a 1963 Red Book. 1889CC $ xf $150. Unc $275.


Jerry

koynekwest

A good one-mostly concerning doubled dies-my specialty. (including my own book on the subject.)

Coinosaurus

Buy the book before the coin is a crock. Used mostly by book dealers.

No one can develop the all important "eye" for coins looking at books. Try looking at thousands of coins instead.

And now that 99% of recent auction catalogs and results are available on the web for free, there is even less reason to buy books.

And for some areas of the market, there is nothing to be found in books. Let's say you want to learn about high end type toner coins. You will a LOT more browsing the Legend inventory for a few weeks and seeing it in person than any book can teach you.

koynekwest

Coinosaurus-
Nonsense! Ask anyone who's used the CPG or other specialized books on varieties. I know I've made tens of thousands of dollars by reading "THE BOOK."

Coinosaurus

Koyne-

I was being a bit facetious. I have all the books, too. Too damn many of them, if you ask my wife. The point I was trying to make is that certain things can not be learned in books, they are just one part of the equation, and the book dealers will never tell you that.

ddbird

I have you all beat!!!



The RED book!

koynekwest

Coino-
Sometimes I'm somewhat dense-I hear you.

Jody526

I have a "LOT" of coin reference books, but not nearly as many as I need.

Always looking for that new one to add to my library.

Cladiator

Redbook, Blackbook, Photograde and a currency book. That's all folks...

ps. I do want to get that superbook about early half dimes though...can't remember the name of it but I can remember it's way too expensive lol

smprfi

You can never have enough books.

I have 20 that aren't price guides. Far too few,but I'm reading what I have.

Thay is what is really important.

Hoot

I have a couple score of coin books in my personal library and the entire ANA at my disposal!

Hoot

kranky

I have a decent library, about 30 books.

BigD5

I have 8ft. of numismatic books on the shelf. How many books are lined up there, I never counted.

I have bunches of auction catalogs too, but they've made their way to boxes, now that most of that info. is on the web.

razorface1027

As far as coin books are concerned, I have very little. Now, a literal coin library I have. All my Whitman books filled with coins, are squeezed in there with my other books on my bookshelf. I consider that my "Coin library."

Trime

I really treasure and use my library. While I have not counted it's content is in the 100 or so range plus hundreds of catalogues.
Ron

EvilMCT

Currently have about 20 books.

Ken

291fifth

About 15 years ago I had a numismatic library of about 150 volumes. Today I have about 10.

PreTurb

I'm always looking for interesting reference material on early half dollars...

earlwbollinger

Humm, I didn't realize it until I counted them but I have 41 books myself.

pmh1nic

"A couple hundred volumes of work, most having to do with copper."

Wow! That's some library.

I have about sixty books. From a few early back issues of Redbook (a couple from the early fifties), a few old auction catalogs (including the 1941 Mehl catalog of the Dunham Collection) to Doug Winter's and Birdsall books on Branch Mint Coinage, Smithsonian Sylloge of early gold U.S. coins, books on historic collections like Eliasberg and Brand, books on U.S. coinage history by Taxay and Bowers and of course standards like Breen's Encyclopedia, ANA, PCGS and Photograde grading guides, etc.

razorface1027

Call me ignorant, but when people refer to the "Redbook," are they speaking of the redbook by R.S.Yeoman? I'm a tad bit confused.

cladking

I have just about everything written on moderns (in English), and stacks of articles and
paper. Also have quite a bit of highly esoteric info & books on various tokens and medals.

Baley

15-20 books. is that "decent"?

dimples

About 25 feet of numismatic books. Good for those cold winter nights.

Shamika

<< <i>No one can develop the all important "eye" for coins looking at books. Try looking at thousands of coins instead. >>



Although I agree with the montra "Buy the book before the coin", there is something to be said about looking at thousands of coins.

Clearly, looking at coins AND reading the book is the best scenario.

mercurynut

I definately don't!

mgoodm3

About 10 books.

KlectorKid

Hmm about 10 maybe. Blue book, red book, breens complete guide to us and colonial coins, cherry pickers guide, bowers book on dimes quarters and half-dollars to name a few.

nwcs

Decent enough for my needs.

Barry

How many books does one really need? I guess it partly depends on what you collect.

I have Breen as a general reference. I have Greer's Seated Dime Book. I have the JRCS Early Dime Book. I have the Red Book, PCGS grading/counterfeiting guide, ANA grading book, and Photograde, and that's about it.

Is there something else I should have? You guys with tens or hundreds of books - is there a small group of books you refer to regularly, and the rest sit collecting dust?

BillJones

I don't keep count of my coin, medal and token books and booklets, but my library is now up to 500+ pieces. I've got a complete year set of Red Books (no varieties), all of the Classic studies on early coin die varieties and most all of the recent updates, and I've got the hard cover editions for the major auctions like Eliasberg and Garrett.

I guess if I went to sell my book collection, which I purchased strictly for reference and not as collectable books, I'd have a moderate sized library with some items that have come to be viewed as scarce over the years. I've got four or five thousand dollars invested in my library, and from enjoyment standpoint its as important to me as my coins. If you own coin and know nothing about it, what's use of having it?

I use the die variety books, the latest Red Book and Breen's Encyclopedias on U.S. and Proof coins alot. But most of the rest don't gather dust either.

stujoe

Mine is not near as decent as I would like it to be nor as decent as it wil someday be.

I do have Breens Encyclopedia, Taxay's US Mint and Coinage, a few Bowers, books, Redbooks, Blackbooks, Bluebooks, PCGS guide, Photograde, ANA guide, Travers' CC Survival Manual, Herbert's error and variety book, all the Numismatists since I joined several years ago, a couple of auction catalogs, and a few other general coin books that escape my memory at the current time.

Bowers' History of US Coins is on my soon to buy list as is his Commem book (and just about every other one of his books eventually )

MadMonk

I do.