Has anyone read "American Numismatic Biographies" by Pete Smith?

Longacre

Has anyone read this book? Any comments on it? I was reading the QDB investing book, and one of the enjoyments of collecting that he mentioned was learning about old numismatists. I really enjoy reading the biographies that QDB has written, like Kosoff, Norweb, etc. I was wondering if this book is in somewhat summary form, or whether it gives good information on famous dealers/collectors. Is it worth trying to track down?

Pistareen

It's not really the kind of book you curl up in your easy chair with. It's large, spiral bound, and features perhaps a thousand paragraph-long bios on people who have collected, designed, appeared on, or had something else to do with US coins and currency. I use it all the time as a quick reference, though the brevity of the bios mean that it's a starting point and not a complete source. It literally never leaves my desk.

I saw Pete this weekend at the Baltimore show. He still does excellent research, and maybe someday he'll issue a 2nd edition. The first edition has been out of print a long time and I've not seen a copy for sale in eons. If you find one, snap it up.