best,most compleat,veariety book?

showmethepenneys

What is the best,most compleate and informative vaiety book out there? I already own the red book.

IGWT

You need to leave the general reference books behind and turn to books that focus on certain series. Edited to add: The best general reference book for varieties is the Cherrypicker's Guide, with volume two of the most recent edition making its debut in Denver.

messydesk

That Depends. Every series has its best, and it's hard to compare across series. If a book for one series sets the standard for how good and complete variety books should be, but you aren't interested in that series, it really doesn't matter.

pharmer

Unfortunately, there is no such animal. The specialized references themselves that IGWT mentions are quite voluminous. The VAM book is huge, Wiles' Lincoln cent rpm books are huge, there is no compendium of doubled dies other than Wiles' Master Listing of 1994 which is woefully incomplete now and would be as thick as the NYC phonebook if all listed ones were included. Plus new discoveries are made almost daily, it seems. Just keeping up with the knowledge base is a complete hobby in and of itself.

showmethepenneys

I like pennys the best. i was thing of getting the cherry pickers guide.

ar18

may I suggest Billy Crawfords book "lincoln cents varieties, volume 1"

TheRegulator

If you're looking for really detailed information on Lincoln Cent die varieties, my top recommendations would be

1.) The Comprehensive Guide to Lincoln Cent Repunched Mint Mark Varieties - Volume I Wheat Cents 1909-1939 by Wexler, Allen, and Bordner, and

2.) The Wexler Doubled Die Files Volumes 1, 2, and 3

The only problem with these works is that they only cover parts of the series. The RPM book is much more detailed than the Wiles books, with some varieties having several pages devoted to pictures of diagnostics for different die states. Many of the varieties listed in this book are not in Wiles. The Wexler Files can be purchased from Wexler through eBay and are in a similar format; I believe most of the varieties have just one page per variety with several pictures for diagnostics. Hopefully more volumes will be released in the future.

I also like Chuck Daughtrey's (coppercoins) Looking Through Lincoln Cents as a more general overview of varieties available for each year.