"Game-Changing Books"

Dentuck

Every once in a while a special numismatic book comes along—one that takes the hobby community by storm and brings about a collecting revolution.

Coin collectors had the Cherrypickers’ Guide to Rare Die Varieties, a book now in its fifth edition and recognized as a hobby classic. For paper-money collectors, the brand-new Collectors’ Guide to Modern Federal Reserve Notes, Series 1963–2009 fits the bill.

It was just over 20 years ago, in January 1990, that Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton launched the Cherrypickers’ Guide. The authors had put together a book that shared their enthusiasm for “cherrypicking”—examining a collection of otherwise normal coins, searching for unusual characteristics: doubled and tripled dies, overdates, repunched mintmarks, and other features that can reveal a common-looking coin to be a rare and valuable variety. That first edition debuted at the 1990 FUN show with a small print run of 500 copies, which sold out that weekend. Within 10 months, eager collectors had bought another 2,500 copies of the book.

The second edition (published 1991) included more coin listings, as well as retail values. With hobby newspapers and word-of-mouth publicity fanning the flames of interest, the print run of 5,000 copies sold out in about six months. Grading services started using the Fivaz-Stanton (FS) attribution numbers on their slabs. The Cherrypickers’ Guide was the right book at the right time, and collectors everywhere began checking their coins for die varieties.

The third edition was published by Bowers and Merena, and it was a barnburner. The book featured about five times as many varieties as the first edition, and went to six printings, selling more than 28,000 copies. The collector community was officially ablaze with Cherrypickers’ fever.

The fourth edition was by far the largest effort up to that point—so large in fact that it had to be divided into two volumes to accommodate a spiral binding. Volume I (self-published by Fivaz and Stanton) included half cents through nickels. Volume II (published by Whitman Publishing in 2006) picked up with half dimes through dollars, gold coinage, and commemoratives.

The fifth edition, volume I, was published in 2009, updating the small-denomination coins—a popular mix, as many collectors like to focus on cents and nickels.

Volume II of the fifth edition is in the works today, with publication slated for 2011.

In just 20 years, cherrypicking has gone from a niche to a bona fide phenomenon to a mainstream interest within the hobby, with thousands of active enthusiasts. As Q. David Bowers, the “Dean of American Numismatics,” puts it: “The Cherrypickers’ Guide has grown from interesting, to important, to now essential. I cannot imagine collecting the coins covered without a copy of this book near at hand.”

Meanwhile, in paper currency. . . .

If there’s a paper-money equivalent of the Cherrypickers’ Guide, it’s Robert Azpiazu’s new Collector’s Guide to Modern Federal Reserve Notes, Series 1963–2009. This book gives the hobby community its first comprehensive guide and checklist devoted to today’s paper money. As Arthur Friedberg points out in the foreword, you don’t need to be an advanced numismatist to collect these notes. They can be found in circulation and bought from your local bank. That’s what makes this field so popular—the largest segment of the paper-collecting community, according to author Azpiazu, himself a hobby authority and a longtime currency dealer.

Similar to the Cherrypickers’ Guide, this new reference tells you what to look for in modern currency notes—for example, which common-at-first-glance $1 note from 2006 is really worth $85 to a collector. If that’s not enough to get people looking at their folding money, I don’t know what is! I believe the Collector’s Guide will ignite a passionate interest in paper-money varieties just like the CPG did for coins not so long ago.

For cherrypickers, it's all about the magic of finding "treasure hidden in plain sight." From time to time that excitement spills over into the American mainstream --- witness the recent "Godless dollars," for example, which made headline news around the country. Does that kind of enthusiasm bring a few new collectors into the hobby community? I like to think so.

Sonorandesertrat

"...Does that kind of enthusiasm bring a few new collectors into the hobby community? I like to think so."

The realist in me would have to say no. Good books like The Cherrypicker's Guide will help KEEP collectors tied to the hobby.