What Books Are A "Must Have" For A Numismatics Library?

If you like US Commemoratives, try:
Commemorative Coins of the United States
Identification and Price Guide
by Anthony Swiatek
- the second edition was published in 2001

With the exception of Looking Through Lincoln Cents by Charles D. Daughtrey, I would suggest NONE. Basically all books are a thing of the past. I collect the Red Book and it used to be the only book for coins back about 30 years ago. Lately the entire book has sank to the bottom of usefulness. The 2006 Edetion was so full of errors I sent a multi page letter to Whitman Publishing tabulating all the errors. The 2007 Edition came out a year early and still full of errors. Now consider the 2008 edition which must have been being put together many months ago. What good is a 2008 book written in 2006? Errors in prices, missing info, wrong mintages and even pages missing numbers. Unfortunately I must keep up the collection since I started way, way back.
Consider the fact that you can retrive up to date, latest, accurate coin information write here on the internet why would you want a book on a shelf? You can verify any coin facts through numerous resources and even discuss them with people like your doing now. So why have something on a shelf that collects dust?

rggoodie,

I tried the link but it's not working

Redbook/Bluebook...same thing as far as the info...mintage figures, etc. The RedBook tends to have better pics and comes spiral bound...very cool. Bluebook prices are more in line with what you could actually get for coins you sell...but with that said...no book is really accurate.
Everyone should also have the ANA grading book, whether you agree with the grading standards or not...it's the grading scale that virtually all of the U.S. hobby uses.

The rest depends on what you collect. Breens Ency, certainly. Krause for foreign coins, definately. Haxby for obsolete banknotes, although the 4 vol set is $750-$800, it's still great research material.

Get a book for everything you like. Specialty books abound...small size paper, u.s. tokens, national banknotes, Buffalo nickels, Seated coinage, Unusual world coins...the list goes on and on. You can never have too much info, right?

And READ the books...just don't put them on a shelf. Read the articles and use the info, otherwise you've wasted your money in buying it.

tradernick