Gold $20 Liberty/Gaudens book

[Proudtoown]

can any one recommend a good book on $20 double eagles? Would like something newer with good pictures, color would be nice also. looking for something that gives an analysis instead of history. more than one recommendation would be nice also for comparison.

[coinman_23885]

An Official Red Book: A Guide Book of Double Eagle Gold Coins: A Complete History and Price Guide (This has a lot of history, but pricing information as well).

 

Also, Doug Winter has an excellent book called A Guide to Collecting Type I Double Eagles for the Liberties.

 

Guth and Garrett. Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins, 1795-1933. Obviously only parts of this would be relevant.

[BillJones]

This book is excellent. There is lots of history here, but each date is covered as to rarity and available grade. Just remeber than prices change constantly. No guide that is not on the web and constantly being updated can give you those accurately.

 

[Nutmeg Coin]

The Bowers book is excellent, agreed. Also Universal Coin was offering their books on these series written by Mr. Fuljiens/Winters for free I think if you paid shipping.

[RockMyAmadeus]

These Red Books that have come out, on various subjects, in the last 10-15 years, have been fantastic. I wish they'd had them when I was a kid.

[RWB]

The DE book is not one focusing on varieties - of which there are hundreds.

[BillJones]

The DE book is not one focusing on varieties - of which there are hundreds.

 

Collecting $20 gold pieces by date and mint is tough enough. My type set of six coins cost a small fortune for all of them in MS-63 or better.

[Nutmeg Coin]

I had hundreds over the years. I bought a lot from Bill VonElm of Country Lane Rarities who had some great coins. If you go back to the pre-ship wreck hoard days, type Is were super hard to get without a hefty premium in nice AU, not to mention the BUs. In retrospect all the investment advice about type IIs in mintstate being great coins for their upside by Universal Coin in particular turned out to be quite backward. As gold more than quadrupled, type IIs in MS62 have hardly appreciated at all.

 

Q David Bowers is a great writer and his book is one of the best on the subject.

[Houston Investor]

I agree with Bill, it takes deep pocket to collect double eagles.

 

One of my favorite books is the work by David Akers - A Handbook of 20th-Century United States Gold Coins.

 

I remember when I purchased this book in 1988, reading it cover to cover fascinated with all the different issues and the way color and luster would vary. It made me want to live back in an earlier era when these may have been more affordable. It certainly resulted in me buying many Saints as I was captivated by these coins and the era. To this day I still have that copy on my desk (with its highlighted pages) and the later version in the bookcase upstairs.

 

I know of one dealer around that time who upon reading this book, sold everything he had to concentrate on Early 20th Century US Gold. Eventually he was able to afford enough of it to fill up case at a show and then filled up another case with quality US and World Currency. Both cases 2' x 3' easily fit on an 8' table at a show and made quite a display. Both types of material have done well.