Good books that enhance your coin collecting experience.

As I wrote last week, the previous month was an active one for coin purchases. However, last month I made a few other numismatic purchases that often fall under the radar screen. The internet is an invaluable source of information with which to research your coins, and I have used it to find a wealth of information. Nevertheless, for some things there is no substitute for a good library as I still enjoy thumbing through my old Red Books. The purchases that I am referring to besides the coins are books. Last month I purchased three books for my library, they are, ?Grading Guide for Modern US Coins?, ?Fascinating Facts, Mysteries, & Myths about US Coins?, and the first edition of the Official Red Book ?A Guidebook of United States Coins Professional Edition?. All three of these books I have found to be very useful. If you are interested in any of these books, I am including a brief review and link to each in my post.

The first thing that caught my eye concerning the book ?Grading Guide for Modern US Coins? is that it is based on NGC grading standards. One of the things that often frustrate me about submitting coins for grading is knowing EXACTLY what the graders are looking for. This book at 144 pages gives tips and pointers on every United States coin, both proof and uncirculated from 1965 to 2003. The book also covers commemoratives along with the silver, gold, and platinum eagles. Additionally, the book contains population information on the coins but does not cover grading on any coin below mint state. One thing I do not like about this book is it does not cover any coin before 1965. The link for more information on this book is http://www.whitmanbooks.com/Default.aspx?Page=81&ProductID=0794819109

To get a perspective on ?A Guidebook of United States Coins Professional Edition?, the book is 9.25x11 inches, 383 pages, and weighs 2.3 pounds. This book is literally packed with information, photos, raw data, and valuations on every US coin. I have not begun to scratch the surface of information contained in this book. The photography is excellent with 1600 photographs and the information relative to the Red Book is greatly expanded. One neat feature about this book is that it gives the number of certified coins, average grade, and percentage of MS coins for each coin. As a resource, you will be hard pressed to find as much information in one place. The down side of this book is that it is large, clunky, and especially hard to handle if you are working in front of a keyboard. To get much more in depth information on this book go to the following link.

http://www.whitmanbooks.com/Default.aspx?Page=81&ProductID=0794828426

While the previous mentioned two books clearly fall into the category of reference books, the third book ?Fascinating Facts, Mysteries, & Myths about US Coins? is plain fun. This book has lots of pictures and insets with various fun facts about our coins. You will find entire chapters on the St Gaudens double eagle, the Buffalo nickel, the 1913 Liberty nickel, the Standing Liberty quarter, and much, much more. This book is written almost akin to a story with chapters and it is an easy read. There are many ways you could read this book, you may read it as a novel, thumb through it and look at the pictures, read the facts in the insets, or even read chapters of particular interest. I heartily recommend this 239-page book.

http://www.krausebooks.com/product/fascinating-coin-myths/united-states-coins-books

Oh, by the way, just as an update, my self-imposed moratorium on coin purchases in November is holding up! One week without buying a coin! Withdrawal symptoms are setting in! Happy collecting All!

Gary