Numismatic References

[MaximilianMike]

Hi All,

 

I am wanting to gather opinions on the following question.

 

Is Walter Breens Encyclopedia of US and Colonial coins still considered to be the authoritative reference, on US numismatic history, used by dealers and collectors today? Or if not then what reference has surpassed it?

 

Thanks all!

[BillJones]

Breen's book does contain some errors. Some of them are due to the fact that others have done more research. Some of the varieties that he claimed were scarce or rare turned out to be more common because others started looking for them after he pointed them out in his book. Other errors were the result of Breen's prejudices. One example was the claim that Robert Ball Hughes intentionally modified Christian Gobrecht's seated liberty image to satisfy the demands of prudish people who found the original image of Ms. Liberty to be too risqué.

 

Still with its shortcomings, no other author has attempted a book of this scope on United States coinage, and if they did I doubt that they could improve upon it that much. It is still well worth the price, and I refer to my copy of it on a regular basis.

 

Many of those who condemn the book do so because of the despicable and regrettable behavior of the man who wrote it. It goes with the need on the part of some people to condemn every aspect of the man's life because of one particular facet of it. Having enjoyed Breen's works for a considerable part of my collecting life, I am not going to do that. He deserves credit for the good things he did.

 

[RWB]

No one is likely to compile a similar book. If you want better accuracy, you will have to get the various specialty books. There is a lot of good material in it, but there is also a lot of BS. Almost anything that is anecdotal has a good chance of being false.

 

Don't base a major decision on Breen.