Has anybody read David Hall's book: A Mercenary's Guide .....

DNADave

I think its from the 80's, but when did his view on moderns change?

foodude

I even have an autographed copy

saintguru

Yes I have it...I have no clue about moderns. I will say this...for a pre-POP era he had an amazing feel for the rarities in some series'. Amazing accuracy in Saints!

kieferscoins

<< <i>I think its from the 80's, but when did his view on moderns change? >>



Thats a great question for the Q&A forum. I have the book also and think the cover is very cool.

Cameron Kiefer

Longacre

I read the book as well. The cover is hilarious. I bought it on Amazon used books for 14 cents (I'm not kidding). I don't remember the references to moderns (I don't collect those), but some of his predictions were accurate, while others, such as the price of gold, were wildly inaccurate. It's a good book, though.

Baley

CUEBALL

Yes! I had just got back to collecting and I ordered it,it had just come out.It was a really great book that got your blood pumping.I still have it somewhere, I should get it out and read it again.If I remember correctly prices were high then and I'm glad I didn't run out and buy a lot of the coins.If my memory serves me right I think the 1938-D buffalo nickel in MS-65 was selling for around $120 then.

lsica

Just found this thread.... I know, kinda old.

A fun book to read, but some of the info in it was, well, QUESTIONABLE. Advice to do things like sell all your MS-63 and lower coins and invest in MS-64 and up. Theories that stated that an increased demand MS-65 common walkers would make MS-65 Common Frankie shoot up in price....

But for sure a great cover. DH with nary a spot of gray hair ;-)

RickMilauskas

I have a copy and have read it twice. I feel there is some interesting info in it.

True it does ahve a great cover!

Cladiator

Nope, but it's now on my "to get list".

ROBERTB

My God the cover of that book is so 1980's.

coinguy1

I read it.

In fact, I was working for him before it was published and if I recall correctly, did some proof-reading and editing for it. I can't take credit for the great cover photo, however.

PerryHall

Who is on the cover with David? Don't recognize any of them.

coinguy1

<< <i>Who is on the cover with David? Don't recognize any of them >>

Van Simmons and B.J. Searls, both of whom are still with David.

roadrunner

Mark, didn't BJ Searls work at World Wide coin in the 1970's?
For some reason that name is familiar to me at that time. In particular I'm associating BJ Searls with a huge hoard of S mint seated quarters that broke in the mid to late 1970's. I purchased every good date they had left from a Coin World ad, but the real good ones were long gone (I bought 6 - 1867-s quarters in F-VF from that group).

Yes I have it...I have no clue about moderns. I will say this...for a pre-POP era he had an amazing feel for the rarities in some series'. Amazing accuracy in Saints!

Surprisingly, one could have come up with a pretty good analysis of rarity back then just by tracking auction appearances on paper over a 6-12 month period. And for anyone that had a good archive of 1-3 years of auction catalogs, this could be done in an afternoon or a few days at most. I did that on the 3 Barber series and most of what I surveyed holds true today. David did articles on just about every late 19th century and early 20th century series. It would be interesting to note what his sources of information entailed other than "gut" feel based on personal experiences.

roadrunner

longtimecollector

The book is available at "ALIBRIS" for $3.50