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You can recommend a single book to a new collector... What would it be?

stinkinlincolnstinkinlincoln Posts: 2,733 ✭
in U.S. Coin Forum
Id have to go with QDB's 'Colecting & Investing In Rare Coins'

Great book, easy to follow for a newbi, some great ideas for collections, & alot of general coin info that is sure to peak some interest in coins.

Whats the one book you would recommend?

Comments

  • commoncents123commoncents123 Posts: 2,648 ✭
    How about the red book? That's where I started
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,421 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The current edition of the Red Book.
    All glory is fleeting.
  • BoomBoom Posts: 10,165 ✭
    Good question.

    FWIW - IMHO, I would encourage doing a LOT of reading!

    Depending on just how "New" a collector is I'd recommend maybe joining the ANA,

    taking the correspondence courses in grading and detecting altered & counterfeit US coins.

    Redbook is OK but it's a Yearly publication. If you go that route you'll also need a Blue book.

    The Coin Dealers' Newsletter is always current as opposed to yearly.

    Reading brings Knowledge ... as does "experience" - and Knowledge IS Power.

    A good First step is crucial. A lot of costly mistakes can be avoided this way.

    Ask a lot of questions (which you seem to do) but always "consider the source".

    Subscribe to PCGS' e-zine, The ANA online Newsletter etc, etc.

    Drop me a PM & we'll see if we can get you started on the right foot. image

    There IS no substitute for experience & the only way to experience is by getting
    a mitt & getting into "the Game"! Jump in, inexpensively at first (Face Value), by
    going to Banks and getting your hands on a LOT of coins - you'll need a copy of
    "Photograde" for this!

    Good Luck. image
    Boom's Retired Registry Set & Boom's Retired Variety Set
    image
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,339 ✭✭✭✭✭
    For a new collector, the Red book followed by the ANA grading book.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • sanitarium1inmatesanitarium1inmate Posts: 1,078 ✭✭
    I just lent my Red Book for Lincoln cents to my neighbor. It helps that he is interested in cents which is a good start for beginner collectors. That book is full of easy to read info for someone just getting started.
    In the time of Chimpanzee's
    I was a Monkey
  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,797 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Adventures in Rare Coins or More Adventures in Rare Coins
    My Box of 20: https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/box-20/ryks-gold-box-20/17132
  • garsmithgarsmith Posts: 5,894 ✭✭
    The Red Book is a must have
  • dohdoh Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭
    redbook
    Positive BST transactions with: too many names to list! 36 at last count.
  • QuarterCollectorQuarterCollector Posts: 1,384 ✭


    << <i>Id have to go with QDB's 'Colecting & Investing In Rare Coins'

    Great book, easy to follow for a newbi, some great ideas for collections, & alot of general coin info that is sure to peak some interest in coins.

    Whats the one book you would recommend? >>



    I agree.... Red book also
  • rgCoinGuyrgCoinGuy Posts: 7,478 ✭
    "How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living " If you are going to post on this forum. image
    imageQuid pro quo. Yes or no?
  • CladiatorCladiator Posts: 18,061 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Federal Half Dimes 1792-1837 by Logan & McCloskey
  • BillyKingsleyBillyKingsley Posts: 2,661 ✭✭✭✭
    The Red Book was the first book I bought, and I think it was the best decision I could have made there.
    Billy Kingsley ANA R-3146356 Cardboard History // Numismatic History
  • messydeskmessydesk Posts: 20,047 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Depends on the profile of the collector and if the book comes before or after they've established an interest in coins. If it's someone who is interested in coins and is thinking of investing in them, then a book that sets them straight would be most in order, such as the QDB book. For a YN first discovering an old piggy bank of wheat cents, the Red Book is as attention grabbing as the old Sears/JCPenney Christmas catalogs were. Lots of information, as well as some very basic grading tips. The second book would be a grading guide geared, once again, toward their interests. ANA grading guide for the YN, and perhaps the PCGS grading and counterfeit detection book for the more advanced reader.
    John
    Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
  • FilthyBrokeFilthyBroke Posts: 3,518
    It's gotta be Redbook.
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,339 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Federal Half Dimes 1792-1837 by Logan & McCloskey >>



    For a first book for a new collector??? Are you trying to scare him away???

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,631 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not knowing the collector I would say the Redbook.

    Depending on the collector the Logan/McCloskey book may be entirely appropriate.
    Newman Numismatic Portal, www.NewmanPortal.org
  • stinkinlincolnstinkinlincoln Posts: 2,733 ✭
    WOW, alot of redbook recommendations here.

    Ya know, its funny, Ive never opened a copy of the redbook. Ive owned 2, still have them, first year editions.

    Ill have to grap a copy and see what all the talk is about. image

    I know they cover alot, but if everyone is saying this is a must, it must be one.


  • MORGANHUNTER2MORGANHUNTER2 Posts: 4,473 ✭
    I was thinking "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, for a beginner

    but then again what do I know. I read the red book, once.

  • stinkinlincolnstinkinlincoln Posts: 2,733 ✭
    <<I was thinking "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, for a beginner

    but then again what do I know. I read the red book, once.>>

    Im reading this book now. image

    Good call.
  • CladiatorCladiator Posts: 18,061 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>Federal Half Dimes 1792-1837 by Logan & McCloskey >>



    For a first book for a new collector??? Are you trying to scare him away??? >>

    Recruiting. image
  • DentuckDentuck Posts: 3,819 ✭✭✭
    If only a single book:

    1. The Red Book (A Guide Book of United States Coins, R.S. Yeoman, edited by Kenneth Bressett) --- the current edition or one from the last year or two. The new collector will see every type of U.S. coin ever minted in the federal series (including all of the modern quarters), plus bullion, commemoratives, and coin sets, plus an overview of colonial and early American tokens and coins, patterns, medals and tokens, errors, and more --- all in excellent full color photographs, with accurate specifications, mintages, and other details, in addition to historical narrative and valuations. There's no other single book that provides this.

    and, after that:

    2. The Expert's Guide to Collecting and Investing in Rare Coins, by Q. David Bowers. A veritable university course in the history and basic science of numismatics, in 600-plus pages of his engaging style. I can't sum it up better than this summary: "At 34 chapters and nearly 700 pages, it covers everything from grading to determining values to techniques of smart auction bidding. More than 1,300 photographs and illustrations, both black and white and in full-color galleries, complement the text, showing the people, places, and coins described. Bowers' engaging case studies, strategies, and insider tips make the book an invaluable 'how to' for today's marketplace. Chapters are devoted to copper, nickel, silver, and gold coins; dynamics of the coin market; fads, trends, cycles, and predictions; conserving and protecting your collection; how to be a smart seller; and more."


    With those two books a new collector will be hooked into the world's greatest hobby.


  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 34,219 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yes, the Red Book is a reasonable start, but here's a fresh suggestion.

    How about America's Money, America's Story, A chronicle of American Numismatic History by Richardd Doty? I just finished it and thought it provided an outstanding overview of the U.S. monetary history without being overly technical.
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • JungleFeverJungleFever Posts: 516
    Red Book for certain..........lot's of variety of info.
  • WalmannWalmann Posts: 2,806 ✭
    As fine a publication the Redbook is the perdominance of the price listings tends to overshadow the other information in the book. A new collector may see the price guides and little else.

    Tough to pin point a single book, it is more a matter of not only the area of interest for the collector, but their level of awareness of various issues such as grading, doctored coins, altered,counterfeits etc. Also to be taken into consideration is the individuals ability to devote time to research. For some such magazines as COINage (currently with an artilce about fakes on Ebay) may be of great value to make a new collector to make them aware of pitfalls that all too often kills the new collectors interest. It also doesn't hurt to cut into the pool of people that the scam artist feed upon.

    PCGS's Coin Grading and Counterfeit Dectection is a fairly decent book on some of these issues. Scott Traver's Coin Collector's Survial Guide also a good resource on doctored coins and such.

    I'm looking at this more from the perspective of what tends to burn and turn off new collectors and kill their interest in the hobby.


  • BearBear Posts: 18,953 ✭✭✭
    There is no one book. A beginner should expect to own a library of books,

    relative to grading and to the series of coins they are interested in collecting.

    That library plus the information gleaned from this Forum will allow the novice

    to avoid most of numismatics mine fields.

    There once was a place called
    Camelotimage
  • tightbudgettightbudget Posts: 7,299 ✭✭✭
    Redbook
  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,797 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The Millionaire Next Door
    My Box of 20: https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/box-20/ryks-gold-box-20/17132
  • MidLifeCrisisMidLifeCrisis Posts: 10,547 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My first thought was also the Red Book.

    However, I'd recommend "In Yankee Doodle’s Pocket: The Myth, Magic and Politics of Money in Early America" by Will Nipper. I think this book is good at generating interest in coins as links to history...not just objects collected by geeks or investors only interested in precious metals.
  • Ed1840Ed1840 Posts: 355
    I'm with the crowd. I say Redbook. It was the first one for me, and it seems I'm not the only one.
  • foodudefoodude Posts: 3,573 ✭✭✭
    Red Book
    Greg Allen Coins, LLC Show Schedule: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/573044/our-show-schedule-updated-10-2-16 Authorized dealer for NGC, PCGS, CAC, and QA. Member of PNG, RTT (Founding Platinum Member), FUN, MSNS, and NCBA (formerly ICTA); Life Member of ANA and CSNS. NCBA Board member. "GA3" on CCE.
  • luckymanluckyman Posts: 721
    the Bible....repent ye moneychangers! Oh....ok....the redbook image
    ....and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make....

    The Beatles
  • 19Lyds19Lyds Posts: 26,491 ✭✭✭✭
    "Coin World"
    I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.



    The name is LEE!
  • BearBear Posts: 18,953 ✭✭✭
    How about a bible, so they can pray,

    so that they will not be preyed upon.
    There once was a place called
    Camelotimage
  • dorkkarldorkkarl Posts: 12,691 ✭✭✭
    the red book, w/out question. i sure as he11 would not introduce a new collector w/ a book that has "investing" as part of the title!!!

    K S
  • NysotoNysoto Posts: 3,818 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The Official Bluebook Handbook of US Coins, Whitman. Coins are only "worth" what they can be sold for. This was my first numismatic book that I purchased back in 1964.
    Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
  • SkyManSkyMan Posts: 9,493 ✭✭✭✭✭
    With all the people recommending the Red Book, Chairman Mao ought to be pleased. image
    Toned Franklins

    U.S. Type Set
  • JMWJMW Posts: 497 ✭
    Any book written by David Lange
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The book that has impressed me the most and resulted in literally months of enjoyment was Bowers "Silver and Trade Dollars - A Complete Encyclopedia". The huge 2 volume version - not the little condensed thingy.
    Early Dollar Set
  • speetyspeety Posts: 5,424 ✭


    << <i>The book that has impressed me the most and resulted in literally months of enjoyment was Bowers "Silver and Trade Dollars - A Complete Encyclopedia". The huge 2 volume version - not the little condensed thingy. >>



    Agreed but a little much for a new collector imho.
    Want to buy an auction catalog for the William Hesslein Sale (December 2, 1926). Thanks to all those who have helped us obtain the others!!!

  • DDRDDR Posts: 1,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Bower's Silver and Trade Dollar Encycolpedia Vols I and II are the most valuable numismatic books I have ever read. But for a new collector just starting out: RedBook, without a doubt.
    David
    Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
    Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"

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