Best Books For American Colonial Coins

Bowers/Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial Coinage is great, a new 2 edition just came out so get that one if you do. Runs around $40.00 Get it at Whitman's site or off ebay or many vendors like Wizard or Brooklyn Galleries, etc.

Finding books on Colonial Coinage under $50 is a real challenge, I would suggest looking to ebay and making up custom searches to be notified if one pops up. I have been on a Colonial book buying tear lately. I think the cheapest I've paid is right at $50 for one, and most seem to be at or just over $100.

Abel Buell and the History of the Connecticut and Fugio Coppers by Christopher McDowell is my favorite book I've read this year - $65.00

The History and Coinage of Machin's Mills by Jack Howes, James Rosen, and Gary Trudgen is great also $65.00

The Syd Martin 4 volume set is on sale for $350.00 each book runs around $50-95 each.

The Hibernia Coinage of William Wood (1722-1724) Syd Martin from the set above is the new reference standard and only $50.00 as is:
The Rosa Americana Coinage of William Wood another one from the set above also $50.00

Charles Davis sells these currently and he regularly offers them on ebay, I got mine that way and saved a little bit. My last buy from him was "The Coins of Colonial Virginia" by Dr. Moore I'm currently half way through that one.

The steal of the year is this deal: $350.00 includes all of the above books in one package:
https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/ch...Default.aspx

Don't over look the Newman Numismatic Portal, as they have most of the C4 journals available, all the Colonial Club Newsletters, Newman's Early Paper Money book, Phillip Mossman's classic "Money of the American Colonies and Confederation: A Numismatic, Economic and Historical Correlation"

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/530808

Check the Periodical menu drop down and go to "C" for the C4 Newsletters, all of the Colonial Newsletters and the Online Colonial Newsletters of the past. Each one can be opened up by clicking the link at the top of the box the newsletter/book opens up or just scroll down to select the PDF option and right click to "save as" they use the Internet Archive as a storage partner. So many Colonial papers, newsletters, journals and books I have got over the past year and still not even through all of them, all of Eric Newman's papers and books are there, as many archival boxes of his papers and research notes as well.

One of the best online resources is Notre Dame's Colonial coinage research site: Start here: https://coins.nd.edu/

Another resource at NNP is the Auction catalog section, just put up this month are almost a complete set of the C4 club convention auction books, The ANR (American Numismatic Rarities) Heritage for the 21 Newman catalogs and Stack's and Stack's/Bowers for the John J. Ford, Jr. 23 volume set of catalogs in PDFs, Don't forget some of the classic auction catalogs from Bowers & Merena like the Taylor Auction and the Photo plates.

Too late now, but Kolbe & Fanning is selling the last of Scott Rubin's library via mail bid sale it ends in an hour though and you need to be approved to bid. I'm in on a bunch of books there at the moment. K&F also has a great selection, I probably spent more money with David and Maria than I have on coins this past year or two.

https://www.numislit.com/ keep checking in regularly and set up a free want list with an account to stay up on new items.


They will have the brand new (shipping later this month):

The Identification and Classification of Connecticut Coppers (1785-1788) by Clark this is said to be the ultimate reference on Connecticut Coppers superseding the Miller reference. Though again another expensive reference book.

https://www.numislit.com/pages/book...rs-1785-1788

There is always joining the ANA and or the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4) and taking advantage of their free lending library, I utilize those often as it can put expensive book in your hands to read, research from and copy parts while you have possession all for the cost of the membership and postage.

Let me know if I can help you locate any of these items I mentioned if you have trouble. I have or own all of them in my library.

Wow....lots of great feedback and suggestions here westcoin, thank you tremendously! I appreciate all the effort you put into writing this. I'll probably start off buying one or two of these for now and then work my way up the ladder as I get more into colonials. As of now I don't own a single colonial but I do believe it is better to gain the knowledge and price points before I go out and start buying things. Amazing that you provided some links here! I will begin reading tomorrow!

Great thanks to you again for all the work here.

-CH27

Spence, I totally agree, that Whitman book was the very first one I listed. It's an excellent book too, just be sure to get the newer 2nd Edition, as it fixed most all of the errors and typos from the first edition.

I only have one lowly little Colonial coin myself, (a really worn and slightly corroded King George III Hibernia 1/2 pence, yet I probably have close to $1000 in books on them by now. I sure missed out on the days of paying $100 for a cigar box full of various worn down colonial and spending hours trying to attribute them at the dinning room table, as I've read in so many books. I definitely was born about 15-20 years too late for my coin hobby!