Where Can I Get Some Good Coin Books?

there are numerous encyclopedias for almost every series of coin

think of a type, say Liberty Seated coinage, and you can find guides and encyclopedias for any denomination there is

some guides are way expensive because they were limited printed decades ago and are becoming increasingly rare hence pricy

I'd have to highly recommend getting the RedBook as its a pretty decent book! The RedBook is a great reference, and for all coinage. It doesn't go into as deep of detail as coin specific books do but for general reference and the price it's great, especially because they manage to fit in all coins, as well as some tokens, private currency and bullion as well. The price guide in it tends to be a bit off, but it's a good starting point. And as mentioned goes through all the series, date by date in decent general detail's.

The series specific books are wonderful, for instance "The complete guide to Morgan dollars" (this and the RedBook are both Whitman publications) goes year by year and tells the specific traits, mintages etc etc for each year and mint in much more detail than the RedBook. Just a wonderful book and there are books for pretty much every series. But as mentioned some are unbelievably expensive as there limited issue and quite frankly pretty rare.

Join the ANA! WIth a membership you gain access to the Dwight Manley Numismatic Library, for the cost of postage only, you will have access to tens of thousands of fantastic and often out of print or unavaiable books.

Online, there are a few good numismatic books posted for free. PCGS comes to mind as they have paid for quite a few books to be put up on their website under resources section. Though not really pricing guides.

For pricing coins, I no longer use printed guides at all. There are several online pricing websites, some are free, some cost money. I used to primarily survive on the Greysheet weekly when I was dealing fulling time in US coins, but even towards the end, I started using online pricing and I quit my greysheet subscription. I often research ebay, Teletrade, Heritage and other auction sites to find info on tougher varieties or pieces.

The Cherrypicker's guides are a good starting point for pricing varieties, but like all hard copy price guides, once they are out in the market, they will cause more examples of particular coins to surface in the market, bringing down their respective values. The TOP 100 VAM dollars book comes to mind, most of the Top 100 coins dropped in price from the publishing of that book, while 20 or so went way up in value, as people began to realize just which VAMs were really tough to find.

When I buy hard copies of books I usually do so used, in as like new condition as I can find, it can save a lot of money. Search ebay, and dealer websites, along with coin shows and local used book stores. I found a copy of the Garrett Auctions hardbound (worrth at least $125.00) for $15.00 at a local shop last year.

As you might have guessed, my Numismatic library is a big part of my coin collection!

The Red Book is where any serious or amateur collector begins. Get it, read it, absorb it. You'll learn a lot and have a lot of fun.

check Walmart.com and half.com for pretty good prices on books.They also have a pretty vast selection