Is There A "Variety" Type Reference Book?

I have just bought myself a copy of
'The U.S. Coin Digest' for 2102. (and I wasn't hungry at the time either!) Cost me $10. Hard covers, spiral bound, 318 glossy pages, hundreds of illustrations, mostly color. The book measures about 9" x 7", and is about 1" thick.

It is only January 2012. How on Earth did this copy find it's way into a dealer's stock in Sydney so quickly?

Besides having a comprehensive listing of prices of U.S. coins,
there is a listing in the back of the book of hundreds of errors and varieties, with a brief explanation on all of these, and some photographed. In this regard, it is probably not the most extensive listing on these two subjects, but it is certainly more than adequate for my needs!.

Try Amazon from of the 2 book titles bio listed above, they can be bought at good discounts.

Cajunlady, join the ANA, besides a great organization, you'll get free admitance to all ANA shows, a fantastic monthly magazine, and free access to their extensive library, postage is on you to get the books and return them like Netflix kind of. I grew up near them so I had it made as to the library and the Summer Seminars (best weeks I've every had) still am great friends with people I met decades ago at a Summer Seminar week. (now 2 weeks, I haven't been in a long time, need to change that soon). They have a book sale at the seminar every year, back when I was a regular attendee, they sold stuff by the pound, and since I lived 60 miles away I drove to it and had a big empty trunk!

The cost of membership is less than most good variety books cost, even on Amazon.
ANA: http://www.money.org

JT Stanton is one of the big variety publishers you can find his shop here http://www.stantonbooks.com/

Also a great little article he wrote to wet you whistle on varieties and how to make it pay for you!
http://www.coinresource.com/article...ypicking.htm

Once you cherrypick a coin at a shop or show and sell it you'll be hooked as I was my few big scores have cost me less than $20.00 each and sold for $300-$1500.00

Two years ago there was a person that took a class on VAM Dollar varieties, and picked a VAM44 at his first table at the FUN show, the coin cost $150.00 it sold for $10,500.00 after PCGS certified it, not a bad days work, and I'll bet he's hooked now. I've been looking for a VAM44 since I knew what one was. "The King of Morgan varieties."

If you like looking for varieties, Indian Head cents have a lot of them, even in in the last years of mintage (repunched dates) They are well documented too. Rick Snow has catalogued all the known varieties in his reference guides. The CPG is a great reference too--good luck!

Hi reference works for varieties are specialist publications so world coin catalogues although useful tools are not good for this purpose.

You will find many reference sites on the net which will help you find this information. My advice to you would be to find sites which deal with different areas and then book mark them so that you will end up with a lot of free information at your finger tips. I have a web site coinwiki it is an encyclopaedia of British coins from 1816 to present date. It is a useful tool with all the types and many of the varieties of British coins listed with a lot of images. The site is a constant work in progress but I think it is still quite informative.

Also check out my links page as this will point you in the direction of some other useful reference sites.

Good luck with your collecting Alastair