Best Fiction/Novels with Coin Collecting Themes

GritsMan

Okay, part of this is a blatant attempt to promote my own young adult novel "Double Eagle", BUT really what got me thinking was finishing "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks. In it, a Dad with Asperger's Disease is an avid coin collector, which PO's the son until he learns from his perfect girlfriend what is going on. It's not a GREAT coin novel and is very schmaltzy, but would be of interest to some. He throws a lot of names around like Legend and PCGS and greysheet, which indicate he did some research, but may not really know coins in depth. In fact, my biggest disappointment was that he didn't give details of Dad's collection--just alluded to the fact that it was very valuable.

Anyone here have a favorite or interesting coin FICTIONAL read?

RWB

Hmmmm...Breen's "Encyclopedia?" Well---it's part fiction....

Walmann

MidLifeCrisis

<< <i>Hmmmm...Breen's "Encyclopedia?" Well---it's part fiction.... >>


RWB - why don't you write an updated and corrected version of Breen's Encyclopedia?

OKbustchaser

A short story rather than a novel but the best fiction with a coin collecting backround that I've read is the Hugo award winning "The Woodrow Wilson Dime" by Jack Finney.

ambro51

.....one of the scenes in "Somewhere in Time" is very coin related.

Christopher Reeve manages some type of psychic time travel, journeys back to 1912 where he meets (again) an actress and falls in love etc etc.

all is going quite peachy until he pulls a Lincoln Memorial penny out of his pocket.

Game over. *(period}*

barbershopper

This one isn't directly related to coin collecting but it's close.

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Gold Bug".

JT

RWB

I could only update portions. Others could certainly do the same, but there would have to be some deep pockets behind the project due to cost - even if it were an electronic version.

Coinosaurus

<< <i>I could only update portions. Others could certainly do the same, but there would have to be some deep pockets behind the project due to cost - even if it were an electronic version. >>



The effort is probably better spent doing a series of books - a la RWB's Peace Dollar guide book, etc. I'd rather see a well-footnoted series as opposed to trying to cram all the information into one book.

vans1

<< <i>Okay, part of this is a blatant attempt to promote my own young adult novel "Double Eagle", BUT really what got me thinking was finishing "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks. In it, a Dad with Asperger's Disease is an avid coin collector, which PO's the son until he learns from his perfect girlfriend what is going on. It's not a GREAT coin novel and is very schmaltzy, but would be of interest to some. He throws a lot of names around like Legend and PCGS and greysheet, which indicate he did some research, but may not really know coins in depth. In fact, my biggest disappointment was that he didn't give details of Dad's collection--just alluded to the fact that it was very valuable.

Anyone here have a favorite or interesting coin FICTIONAL read? >>



My wife read Lawrence Block's book, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza (1980). I haven't, but she said he mentions Walter Breen and Don Taxay in it. Block worked for Whitman in Racine for a short time in the 1960s.

firstmint

The best fiction numismatic book that I've read is the 1942 book called "The High Window" (original title was The Brasher Doubloon) by Raymond Chandler.

In the text, he outlines the process for making exact copies of Brasher Doubloons!

EagleEye

My sons got a kick reading The Hardy Boys "The Melted Coins". It was a gift from Notlogical.

pmac

I know you didn't ask for movies, but Clint Eastwood, in Absolute Power, was a professional thief who, while pilferring a coin collection, witnessed the president murder somebody.

Dentuck

Here's an interesting conversation along similar lines ---->

I found it while Googling "The Woodrow Wilson Dime."

VAMSKY

Don't judge by the movie, but Clive Cussler's "Sahara" was a good read. The sub-plot was tracking down an ironside ship loaded with Confederate gold double eagles minted during the war (Presumably at New Orleans). They were moved to keep them out of Union hands and maintain the financial viability of the Confederacy. Fiction, but fun.

kahokia

Silas Marner.

swhuck

If there are good ones, I haven't read them. Maybe -- just maybe -- The Deep, but that's more treasure hunting than numismatic in nature.

I've not read it, but I saw Sahara when I did a roadie to the Kansas City ANA a few years back. It definitely has a numismatic theme, but yeesh...