Thread: Sometimes the old reference books are still informative.

Like most variety collectors, I have almost every book I know about on small cents, and many on buffalo five centers, and I usually try to get the most recent figuring the older published books are outdated. But when this book I am currently reading was mentioned in a prior thread, I found one from one of Amazon's resellers, and it was inexpensive and new. It is Hancock's and Spanbauer's Standard Catalog of United States Altered and Counterfeit Coins ( 1979) 220 pages.

It doesn't have the high definition photos of most newer books ( most are line drawing types), but it covers a wider range of deceitful coins and their origins. It also provides much info on practices before I began to really collect this area. I don't want to cover too much, but I found the table of weights and specific gravities of coins very useful. Quite a bit about modern and ancient castings, and modern EDM ( electrical discharge manufacturing ) making of dies. The photo of the 1955/55 DDO fake that the maker had the 2nd strike in the wrong direction or Henning's 1944 Jeffersons where the P was left off.
I didn't know that in 1968 one dealer sold 95,000 fake 1909-SVDB coins that could pass eye inspection. Anyway, it is an enjoyable read, I can pass over the part where ANA and ANAC are mentioned as the only safe way to check your coin as PCGS, NGC, etc. were not yet players as I recall.

If you don't find way to buy it, ask your college or county library if they participate in Interlibrary loan where they can borrow it from another library for you to read.

Jim

Nice post Jim. Congrats on the "kick" upstairs.......

Jim, It's great to find out about this book. I'll be looking for it in libraries and book stores.

Bruce

Just to add my point, the fact that older reference books are still valuable is treated as gospel in the ancient coin world. I find myself chasing books printed 50/75/100 years ago regularly. About the only coin books that get outdated are the "and their values" type when a new edition is published. One should never think that since they have the standard reference to a series that another, maybe older, book is still not valuable.

Knowledge is money, and this is absolutely true in coin collecting. It also allows for deeper, more fulfilling understand of the coins you own and collect, making your collection even more rewarding. Also, a good coin book actually goes up in value faster than the coins they are describing, so it is not an expense really, but an investment itself.

Originally Posted by medoraman

Just to add my point, the fact that older reference books are still valuable is treated as gospel in the ancient coin world. I find myself chasing books printed 50/75/100 years ago regularly. About the only coin books that get outdated are the "and their values" type when a new edition is published. One should never think that since they have the standard reference to a series that another, maybe older, book is still not valuable.

Knowledge is money, and this is absolutely true in coin collecting. It also allows for deeper, more fulfilling understand of the coins you own and collect, making your collection even more rewarding. Also, a good coin book actually goes up in value faster than the coins they are describing, so it is not an expense really, but an investment itself.

Better still, there are free, legal downloads of most books older than 100 years old. These still contain extremely important historiographical information, if nothing else. For some areas of the ancient world, the best references available are actually almost a century old.

There are also the free on-line references for David Lawrence's books on Barbers.

Still a great deal of relevant info.

And often the old books contain information that can be found no where else.

Originally Posted by GDJMSP

And often the old books contain information that can be found no where else.

wow, twice in a life time that I agree with Old Man Doug!

Whoda thunk!

Gonna getcha for that Frank

And often the old books contain information that can be found no where else.

I haven't seen a recent mention of google books
http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search

put in doubled die , greek coins , altered coins , etc. and see the variety of
information available. Some you can read the whole book if you wish, other not so, but a tremendous storehouse.

Jim

I prefer older books. They are usually much better written, more informative, and more comprehensive than a lot of modern reference books. Not to mention, they seem to be geared more towards collecting than investing. I don't want to pay for 500 pages of meaningless coin prices and no information on the coins themselves.
Guy~

May I give a different take on the book mentioned in the original post. I bought a copy back when it first came out. While it has some good information, I found it to be poorly written, and in great need of a good editor. It was too repetitive, and with a fair number of typos, incorrectly labeled images and factual errors. I when I read it I kept notes and I had 15 hand written pages of errors or corrections that needed to be made. To a large extent I felt the book was an advertisement for ANACS. But that wasn't too surprising since Virgil Hancock was one of the major driving forces behind the creation of ANACS. It was his baby and he pushed it every chance he got. In this book he got a lot of chances.

If you can borrow a copy from a collector or a library it may be worth getting and reading. (ANA members can borrow it from the ANA Library for just the cost of postage.) I would not recommend buying one.

As far as information on how counterfeits are made I would more strongly recommend Coin Forgery.

Knowledge is power! (if you use it well)

Originally Posted by desertgem

I didn't know that in 1968 one dealer sold 95,000 fake 1909-SVDB coins that could pass eye inspection.

Ok, am I the only one who read this part and went "ackkk!"

Of the 95,000 how many have been weeded out and how many are still floating around and routinely traded as the real thing?

Originally Posted by J-Man

Ok, am I the only one who read this part and went "ackkk!"

Of the 95,000 how many have been weeded out and how many are still floating around and routinely traded as the real thing?

I heard something about that when I was a kid. I never knew if it was true, but it is one reason why I have been reluctant to buy key coins in any series, especially ones with mintmarks.