What are your essential volumes in your Numismatic Library?

nicholasz219 · December 11, 2012 8:48PM

Hello All,

Something that I do not recall seeing here on the World and Ancients Forum is a good discussion about what the key reference books are in your library. I think this sort of goes unspoken until a colleague unfamiliar with a coin or country asks for a recommendation and we all just forward the best titles to them without thought.

In the spirit of each of us getting to share some information about our own specialties and for the sake of good discussion, I would like to know what your specialties are and the appropriate best of the best in terms of reference works, catalogs, websites, et cetera. If this goes well, we might be able to come up with a pretty nice "Forum Recommends..." that could remain and be edited as new works arise for all people to use as a standard starting point for good stuff.

For myself, I typically work on my Russian collection the most, so I use a few standards:

Krause, "Standard Catalog of World Coins" (Each of the different century volumes.)
Uzdenikov, "Russian Coins" (Russian/English bilingual version.)
Conros, "Russian Coins: 1700-1917" (Russian/English bilingual version. Nice color photography.)

When I get my entire library to my new house and have things sorted, I am sure I will have more titles to recommend.

I look forward to reading about each person's favorites!

nicholasz219

STLNATS · December 11, 2012 10:41PM

Great question and one I think is too often overlooked by too many collectors. On the currency side, I'm constantly amazed by folks who obviously have spent considerable $ on a note and then post absolutely basic questions about it. Oh well, time to chase the kids off the yard I guess. Someone once suggested spending 10% of one's "coin budget" on books and references and while I'm not sure the % is right, the intent is dead on.

Here's a few I use all the time to support my core interests/addictions. There's probably others, but these are top of mind. The explosion during the last decade of references on papal medals has really increased my enjoyment and understanding of this area by several orders of magnitude. These were limited printings and expensive ($200-300 per volume), but are gotta haves if one is serious about the area. On the ancient side there's been a big increase in online resources which I consult with increasing frequency.

Muntoni, Le monete dei Papi e degli Stati Pontifici
Allen Berman, Papal Coins
Modesti, Miselli, et al CNORP and the other similar recent comprehensive works on Papal/Vatican medals
De Luca, Papal Medals
Rinaldi, Catalogo delle medaglie Papali annuali da Pio VII a Paolo VI
Mazio, A Pictorial Catalogue of Papal Medals, 1417-1942

Roman Imperial Coinage, volume 6
David Sear, Roman Coins
David Sellwood, Parthian Coins
Parthia.com web site
Wildwinds.com web site
Bopearachchi, Monnaies Greco-Bactriennes Et Indo-Grecques
M & M Auction 61, the sale of the Bastien follis collection

"Werugs", 4 volume "Nauda Latvija XX Gadsimta" on Latvian state and city currency
Kelly, National Bank Notes & census CD
Huntoon, Large Size National Bank Notes
Hesseler, et al US Paper Money

Krause, various volumes

Senex · December 11, 2012 11:02PM

Charlton Catalogue Volumes 1 &2
Charlton Canadian Colonial Tokens
Coins of Canada

Gazza · December 12, 2012 2:14AM

Spinks for values
Dave Groom's The identification of British 20th Century Bronze coin varieties
Dave Groom's The identification of British 20th Century Silver coin varieties
The Standard Guide to Grading British coins by Derek Allen

And because you have to have them.
Peck
Rayner
Freeman

ajaan · December 12, 2012 3:00AM

To me, the essential volumes are the Krause Catalogues. I have other books as well, but it's the Krauses I couldn't do without.

GotTheBug · December 12, 2012 3:26AM

I own digital volumes of 4 different Krause world coin catalogs as a general reference, for starters. People are always asking me what such and such a coin is and it helps to be able to ID their miscellaneous world pieces even if I don't collect them myself.

Next is Friedberg's "Gold Coins of the World" which comes in handy every so often and which was a gift from my mother.

After that I try to stay up on each year of the Charlton Standard Guides for Canadian coins, since Canadian is my primary pursuit, plus a Standard Grading Guide for Canadian Coins.

Then I decided to get a Spinks price guide to British coins to give me a general feel for the British empire, which I have taken an interest in as of late, plus I picked up an old Whitman British coin guide at a yard sale for a buck so that I have a compact reference guide to take to shows. It's also pretty beat up so I don't have to worry about damaging a pristine reference guide while carrying it around in a backpack.

I also picked up a book titled, "Glimpses of History" to help in identifying any ancient coins which come my way. This one currently gathers dust on the shelf since I haven't deliberately crossed paths with many ancient coins.

I also keep a U. S. Red Book handy at shows as I have begun getting back into U. S. coins a little at a time.

STLNATS · December 12, 2012 7:06AM

It's really interesting to see how folks id what they think is essential and how it coorelates with their collecting. In any case, its great to see that the darkside has members who clearly value their library so much! In thinking about this, I find that for valuations I'm increasingly looking at online resources for pricing, especially the heritage and cng archives. The Krause series is definitely a foundation, but it seems that I'm spending more time looking for actual sales and prices and the archives often give that to me, sometimes with other useful info.

Thanks all for sharing and again for a great question nicholasz219!

coinkat · December 12, 2012 9:32AM

Sort of depends on what coins are sought after

Zohar · December 12, 2012 10:03AM

Davenport European Crowns series.

Muygrandeoso · December 12, 2012 11:28AM

Michael Freeman's Bronze Coinage of Great Britain
Michael Gouby's Bronze Penny
and all of the SCWCs

...but I have a shelf full of others.

JCMhouston · December 12, 2012 12:08PM

English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coinage by Peck
English Silver Coins by Seaby
Coins of England by Spink
Bronze Coinage of England by Freeman
Standard Catalog of German Coins 1501-Present by Krause

1960NYGiants · December 12, 2012 12:20PM

As a collector of Canadian coppers both tokens and decimal issues:

Charlton's Canadian Colonial Tokens
Ingram's The Tiffin Tokens of Canada
Ingram & Marelic's The Bust & Harp Tokens of Canada
Ingram & Marelic's The Ships Colonies & Commerce Tokens of Colonial Canada
Ingram & Marelic's The Provincial Penny & Half-Penny Tokens of Nova Scotia, The Thistle Series
Turner's 1858 Cents vol 1 & 2
Turner's Die Studies of 1890H & 1892
Turner's Dies & Diadems
Haxby's 1859 Die Varieties website: vickycents.com
Breton's Coins & Tokens of Canada (1893)
Leroux's Canadian Coin Cabinet

coachbedford · December 12, 2012 2:14PM

"Uncovered: The Lost Coins Of Early America"

All other books are unnecessary.

dorancoins · December 12, 2012 4:02PM

Where shall I begin.....

Standard Catalog series (both coin and paper money). I buy older editions as well as the CD's.
Charleton guide for Canadian Coins.
McDonald guide for Australian Coins and Paper Money (which has much more info than Krause/Pick.)
Unusual World Coins

In a nutshell, all numismatic books are essential to me, which is why I buy them.

nicholasz219 · December 12, 2012 8:56PM

@STLNATS: You're welcome.

@Coinkat: I know what you mean. That is why I started this post so we could all list what books we use frequently as both a way to recommend our favorite references and also to get it out there as to what we are working on currently, as well as our long standing collecting interests.

The responses are all illuminating and I am happy to learn about books I do not have. I look forward to picking up copies of these books as I come across them.

nicholasz219

nicholasz219 · December 13, 2012 9:11PM

So when you folks are referring to English coins and in particular the earlier hammered coinage, I am guessing that the Spink that you are talking about is J.J. North, author, Spink, publisher? I have a moderate collection of mostly cheap copper and minor coinage from Great Britain that I have given to my daughter. And we are starting to add some hammered silver pennies to her collection now so I'm curious to know what the really good stuff is reference-wise. Same thing with copper milled coinage. If there are varieties of pennies we should be on the hunt for, we want to know about them before we clean her collection out of duplicates.

worldcoinguy · December 14, 2012 1:06AM

I'm with ajaan - I keep it simple mostly with Krause. In particular, my favorite is the German Coins 1500 - present guide by N. Douglas Nicol (published by Krause). Prices are nice to have as a reference, but the relative scarcity between issues is where I gain the most value. If I need a little more info to round out perceived scarcity then I might poke through coinarchives.com to round out the picture.

The only other guide I have (unfortunately in 100% German) is the Zepernick guide reprint from the 1822 original publishing. The "Capitels und Sedisvacanzmunzen und Medaillen" offers a good classification of bishopric issues pieces from the late 1500s through 1801. I use this one to help classify my NGC set in my tagline.

theboz11 · December 14, 2012 7:07PM

The very first book I purchased in regards to coins was a book on counterfeits. Saved me a ton of money in the long run.

I keep a copy of Spinks on hand as well as Krause. Subscribe to Coin World.
My British Historical Medals books are an invaluable asset in my area. Large size Silver Coins of the world , Davenport.

On the US side , I have Q David Bowers, United States coinage, Garret collection and Illustrated history of US Coinage along with some Bowers Catalogs of Auctions.

nicholasz219 · December 14, 2012 7:30PM

Lol, don't even get me started about auction catalogs. I made a lot of friends in the business when I was young and they started sending me auction catalogs regularly. Now, I have bookshelves full of them. It would be great except for the whole "keep buying bookshelves" and "where do I put them?" things. I do find them valuable though for identification even though I never deal in high end coins.

coinkat · December 15, 2012 9:46AM

Coincraft is decent for UK coins- last edition though is like 2000 or so

nicholasz219 · December 19, 2012 9:32PM

Andres mentioned "The Practical Book of Cobs," by Frank Sedwick in another post and I think it is a good addition here.

Also, anyone who has any great websites or publications, even if it is an email service, please add those thoughts as well. I've come to really enjoy:

Coin Weekly

Coin Weekly from Germany

Coin Week

Coin Week, totally unrelated

The English in Coin Weekly is like 1/10 of 1% off of completely perfect which always throws me for a loop since it is so well written that that occasional odd use of grammar reminds me that it is not written by people who use English as a first language.

What are your essential volumes in your Numismatic Library?

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