Book Review?

Sometimes I feel that lately there have been more books on coins around than coins. If you want to see an example just go to the Whitman Publishing web site. They not only have books on coins, but now have a book on their Red Book so a book on coin books. I suppose if it continues to go over, they will make a book on the book that is about their books. Or whatever I just said.
Getting a lot of books on coins is sort of smart but could also comfuse you if you attempt to value your coins based on them. They are great for information about coins but you should remember that almost any book is first layed out, researched, checked for errors, sent for publishing, printed, sent out to places for sale. In some instances this may take months or even a year. Therefore unless the writter can forsee the future, any prices in those are rediculous.
Many people with web sites also sell pamphlets, books, magazines on coins. You may want to try Coin World or Numismatic Magazines too.
However, for now rather than spending a lot of money on books, try asking questions here first. Some questions may lead to a book that you need or could use.

hermanwilliams - I imagine that very question/prayer goes daily through the mind of many a coin collector:

"Oh, dear baby Jesus...should I keep this nondescript, slightly-worn coin with mintage numbers in the hundreds of millions in the hopes that it might some day be identified as a rare version worth enough put my son through private kindergarten?!"

I think that every time I get change -- but unless you have a trained eye, who has time to research all that? I suppose that's why you're asking about books, hoping they've done the research for you. However, even if the books are 99% accurate, they're not going to pore through your Scrooge McDuck-sized vault for you and examine every penny, half, Ike, and 5-cent piece under a magnifying glass. And, as Carl pointed out, the prices therein are likely very dated.

Besides that, books are written by, well... people. And people are 1. seldom completely objective and 2. seldom completely correct.

So collect for yourself and your wants. If you want to make money, then consult the market. The market is brutally honest, unlike people. If you've been squirreling away coins for the past 15 years, your goal probably wasn't to make money on them since inflation has already dinged you. Better choice than baseball cards though.

I say just keep 'em. If you haven't needed the money by now, you're probably good. Swim around like Scrooge McDuck in his vault and go through a handful every once in a while to see if there are some rare ones that you'd be able to ID. And then keep those too because they're cool. Or you could sell wheat pennies at $10/roll on ebay if you have them. 10 bucks for 50 "unsearched" cents? Man, what a rip. :)

Moral of the story? Caveat Emptor. One of the things my dad taught me is: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And any get rich quick schemes are definitely in that category. The person who wrote the book you're talking about has probably made more off the book than he made in rare pocket change finds.

And the other (and most important) moral? have fun collecting. I sure do.

And yes, I'm one of those people whose opinion is suspect. See the 'moral of the story' section of this diatribe.

Everyone here takes questions so seriously.
Like I said earlier, intrinsic value of the coins is not my motivating factor. Just wanted some suggestions on reading material to guide searching for unusual or less common coins.
Thanks carl. I hear you about the " Red Book". I'll use it for now.