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What was the first numismatic book you owned?
291fifth
Posts: 25,228 ✭✭✭✭✭
For me, it was a 1959 edition of the Whitman Blue Book (Handbook of United States Coins). I received it as a gift in 1958. Unfortunately, it is long since gone.
All glory is fleeting.
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1962 Red Book. Got in '61.
LOL....I read the title, and thought I'd be all alone saying...."Whitman Blue Book"!
I got interested in coins in 1997 or so based on late night TV coin sales. Coins I'd never heard of before! I went to a local bookstore looking for something....anything....to feed my interest. Blue Book is what I found.
a 77 red book
13th Edition of the Red Book.
Owned; 1980 Red Book.
Looked at repeatedly as a child, I constantly re-checked this out from the library;
(amazon.com image)
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore, Nickpatton, Namvet69,...
A 1967 Blue Book. Still have it. Love the valuations.
1974 Redbook.
1962 Red Book that my parents bought for me when we were in Panama City, Florida in August 1962. I lent it to a guy at work and the SOB never gave it back.
91 Redbook
Mine was a 1960 or '61 Blue Book.
186x Red book from a thrift store for a buck. (About 5 years ago)
1971 Blue Book. Still have it, lol
1960 Coin Collectors Guide. Still a treasured reference showing Barber Quarters in all grades, plus prices which seem to be about what I end up with when I sell that coin today. Well decorated with my Flintstones rubber stamps. The coins I got were dutifully checked off. Among these the battered 1894 IHC I found in the alley behind my house.
A Kid's Guide to Collecting Coins. My main specialty is now numismatic literature.
Fan of the Oxford Comma
CCAC Representative of the General Public
2021 Young Numismatist of the Year
Red Book...........don't remember the year.............late 60's early 70's
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb, Ricko
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
I know I had Red Books, but the earliest I remember buying was Photograde.
The Mint on Carson Street.
@291fifth said: "For me, it was a 1959 edition of the Whitman Blue Book (Handbook of United States Coins). I received it as a gift in 1958. Unfortunately, it is long since gone."
My copy was my Grandfather's. Still have it in storage.
1964 Red book
Insert witicism here. [ xxx ]
1975 Red Book.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Photograde, IIRC
A Catalog of Modern World Coins by R. S. Yeoman
Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, Wisconsin, 1964 (and later the 1967 edition)
A book with illustrations and prices for world coins dated around 1850 to 1964.
Inflation has made the values obsolete but the illustrations still help in identifying coins.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Red book.
1966 Red Book. It is still around here, someplace.
1958 Blue Book that my Grandfather gave me for Christmas in 1957. It's a bit ragged around the edges and the binding is shot but I still have it.
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
1973 Red Book
Red Book
then Photograde
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
Let's Collect Coins, C.1974
POST NUBILA PHOEBUS / AFTER CLOUDS, SUN
Love for Music / Collector of Dreck
Blue book but would have to look at the date. Late 50's early 60's.
1968 Blue Book.
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
1961 Blue Book. My older brother left it for me when he went into the Navy. He didn't make it home. It's not only my first coin book, it's my most valuable.
A Guide book of United States Coins..1966......&.....Adventures with Rare Coins 1980
It was a Redbook.... in the mid fifties.... actually found it in the local dump where I went to shoot rats... It was an amazing treasure (although somewhat worse for wear) and I spent hours and hours with that book.... forget what year of issue was.... but it was a bit dirty and slightly worn. Very much usable though - it was with a bunch of other books, likely an estate clean out... And it got 'cleaned out' when I joined the Navy. Cheers, RickO
LOL....What I wouldn't give for a nice, leisurely 'rat shoot' down at the dump.......
66 Redbook.
Coin Rarities Online
My mother used to read this to me every night before bed as a child
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Quick question:
Do they still publish the Blue Book?
I haven't seen one in a long time.... (They did seem oddly redundant to Red Book as a piece of reference material.)
Blue or Red book, don't remember which came first the chicken or the egg.
Yes, they still print the blue book.
bob
1979 Red book.
A Guide book of United States Coins..
AKA the Red Book
BHNC #203
Redbook from the early 1960's, followed by the Bluebook from the early 1960's. Still have them. I always was troubled by the Bluebook because it advised that the prices therein are what I could expect to receive if i sold my coins. The prices in the Bluebook were so much lower than the prices in the Redbook, which I understood was what I could expect to have to pay when I was buying a coin.
The differences in pricing astounded me at a 7 year old YN and I thought "How can this be?: it is simply not fair!!!!" It did however clue me into to the realities of the hobby/coin market at an early age. I appreciated that education because is was provided to me at a young age for a the very low cost of the two books and the time it took for me to read them.
My first numismatic book I owned was a Red Book from the time I first started collecting, ca: 1960 or so.
The first numismatic book that really captured my interest was "The United States Half Dimes" by Dr. Daniel W. Valentine, the Durst reprint, purchased around 1985.
And the first numismatic book that really put me over the edge was "Federal Half Dimes 1792 - 1837" by Russell J. Logan and John W. McCloskey, the first (special) copy of which I received pre-publication in 1998.
Like the clothes I grew up in (15 kids in family ), my red book was a "hand-me-down" from the sixties (which I got from a neighbor). I cherished the information and data ever since, even though I left the hobby for a QUARTER CENTury.... (notice how there are two denominations in this revelation ? ) , I've got about 15 or twenty times the reference books, by now. Who can keep up with coins, without books and experts, who've paved the way for us ?
Practice makes perfect & nobody is perfect. So, practice being nobody.
A 1963 Redbook. Followed shortly thereafter by a copy of Dr. Sheldon's Penny Whimsy.
Check out some of my 1794 Large Cents on www.coingallery.org
Geez you guys are old. My first was a red book but 2007
Hmmmm....the first one I owned was a blue book that my dad gave me. It was a few years old but had coins in it that I never knew even existed. The first one I purchased was a Red Book, probably 1975 or so with my paper route money.
K
'64 Red Book was the first and this one is my latest......
My dad had the 1942 Bluebook and either a 1946 or 1948 Redbook. I liked the Redbook prices better so I updated the library with my own 1964 Redbook.
I knew it would happen.
Grandfather let me read his Red Book as a kid.
My eyes immediately widened as I turned the pages, and I was hooked by the time I hit the picture of the 1955 doubled die.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."