First Page
Posted 06/22/2007 2:57 pm
Strongly recommend A guidebook of United States coins by R S Yeoman (the RedBook) When you get it READ IT! Look at the pretty pictures,read the sections on grading each series, note the specifications for each series, ignore the prices listed. The biggest mistake a lot of collectors make is the get the RedBook and all they ever look at are the prices which are the LEAST useful part of the book. If you read the first section of the book you will find one of the best short histories of US coinage found anywhere.
The Error Coin Encyclopedia is very good for an understanding of the minting process, something a great many US collectors are woefully ignorant of. I through knowledge of the minting process will let you recognize a lot of damaged coins being sold as errors, and will help you understand how some of the strange things you might see on coins can happen.
For a grading guide I tend to prefer the 1970 edition of Photograde, it is much better than the other editions. If I can't get that then I would go for the ANA grading guide fourth or fifth editions, not one of the earlier ones or the most recent.
Either of these grading guides will work well for the circulated grades. It is not possible, in my opinion, to teach MS grading from a book and pictures. Yes the text can give you some tips and pointers, but the only way to really learn it is through in hand practice with many many coins.
A fourth book that I always like to recommend (and which I think no one listens to me about.) is the Coin World Almanac, any edition except the 2000 millennium edition. It is a wonderful reference library in one volume and I refer to it constantly. I have three different edition sitting around my chair right now. (each edition has a few things in it that aren't in the others.)
If you are a subscriber to any of the Amos press publications you can join Amos Advantage and buy the hardbound 1990 edition for $5 plus postage. Not bad for a 742 page book. (You have to search for it on the Amos Advantage website it doesn't just pop up.) I swear I need to buy a half dozen copies just so I can give them away to newbies.
Just looked on Abebooks and they have two of the 1990 editions for about $5 each INCLUDING shipping! There are several copies of the first, 4th, fifth and sixth editions available for around $8 including shipping.
The Error Coin Encyclopedia is very good for an understanding of the minting process, something a great many US collectors are woefully ignorant of. I through knowledge of the minting process will let you recognize a lot of damaged coins being sold as errors, and will help you understand how some of the strange things you might see on coins can happen.
For a grading guide I tend to prefer the 1970 edition of Photograde, it is much better than the other editions. If I can't get that then I would go for the ANA grading guide fourth or fifth editions, not one of the earlier ones or the most recent.
Either of these grading guides will work well for the circulated grades. It is not possible, in my opinion, to teach MS grading from a book and pictures. Yes the text can give you some tips and pointers, but the only way to really learn it is through in hand practice with many many coins.
A fourth book that I always like to recommend (and which I think no one listens to me about.) is the Coin World Almanac, any edition except the 2000 millennium edition. It is a wonderful reference library in one volume and I refer to it constantly. I have three different edition sitting around my chair right now. (each edition has a few things in it that aren't in the others.)
If you are a subscriber to any of the Amos press publications you can join Amos Advantage and buy the hardbound 1990 edition for $5 plus postage. Not bad for a 742 page book. (You have to search for it on the Amos Advantage website it doesn't just pop up.) I swear I need to buy a half dozen copies just so I can give them away to newbies.
Just looked on Abebooks and they have two of the 1990 editions for about $5 each INCLUDING shipping! There are several copies of the first, 4th, fifth and sixth editions available for around $8 including shipping.
Edited by Conder101
06/22/2007 3:01 pm
06/22/2007 3:01 pm
