Here are my recommendations for books on the draped/capped bust quarters series: There are two relatively new and beautiful hardcover books on the subject that I consider to be must haves if you enjoy this series: Early Quarter Dollars Of The United States Mint 1796-1838 Glenn Peterson, Bradley S. Karoleff, John J. Kovach Jr., Rory R. Rea This book is readily available and makes die marriage attribution a breeze with easy to use quick attribution charts and large color photos of coins from late state dies. It also has an interesting section on counterstamped and love token bust quarters. Each year has a small section about what was going on in the US in general that year as well as with the mint. This book is the spiritual successor to the original A.W. Browning book on the subject and has lots of great information about the life of Ard Browning and the provenance of the coins used in the photographic plates in the original book. Early United States Quarters 1796-1838 Steve M. Tompkins I love both of the two newer hardcover books, but I prefer the Tompkins as it has a lot of historical context about the US mint as well as great information regarding the history of books and pamphlets written on the subject of bust quarters. This book also focuses on the identification and progression of die states to a degree not covered in any other source. I believe this book was limited to 900 copies. The Early Quarter Dollars of the United States 1796-1838 A.W. Browning Ard Browning's original bust quarter book published in 1925 is the authoritative work on the subject, and the Browning marriage identifications are the standard for this series. Depicted here is the Walter Breen update published in 1992 and reprinted in 1998, which took the original work and broke out the photographic plates so that each die marriage example was presented with the descriptive text for that coin. It was also updated to include die marriages identified after the original 1925 work. The pictures in this book are not the best, but it's got the basic info and it's a cheap pocket-sized book. There are early red cover reprints of the original 1925 work that were reprinted in 1962, 1979 (limited edition of 1000 copies), and 1981. These books can also be had on the cheap, and unlike the Walter Breen edition, they display the information in the original format of the 1925 edition. It is more difficult to read than the Breen update, but interesting to see a "truer" edition of the work. There is also a very limited re-issue from the early 1950s, but it is expensive and difficult to find. There is also a 1975 softcover book by R. Duphorne titled The Early Quarter Dollars of the United States. I would not recommend that book as it tries to re-define die marriages and is generally considered to be confusing.
Excellent overview of the available literature! Like Tom, I own both Tompkins and Peterson, et al., and use them regularly. Jesse
I'll have to put these on my 'to get' list, although I only own a few bust quarters. Suckers are tough to find (for a reasonable price!)
Great write up. I have the Peterson and the Breen reprint of the browning book I have a few but not many bust quarters really want a 1796 for my type set but can't afford it!
I own the Peterson book and I'd like to have a chance to use a Tompkin to see how it compares. The Peterson book is nice but I actually find it a little difficult to use because of the images. The coins are high grade and beautiful, but the heavy colorful toning (And I suspect the images were deliberately taken to show off the color) make seeing the diagnostics more difficult. Frankly it wouldn't be as attractive, but I think it would have been more useful if the images had been done in grayscale.
Oh they were definitely done to show off the color, no question. I think the Peterson book was meant to be one you can leave on your coffee table. It's definitely informative and useful for attributing coins of this series, but it's also meant to be beautiful to display and to flip through. The Tompkins book is also attractive, but it's less flashy and more like a text book. The images are not greyscale, but they depict typical high grade coins. If you're looking for a more diagnostically-minded book than the Peterson, I strongly suggest you pick up the Tompkins. It is densely packed with great information on the series; even devoting a significant portion of the book to displaying die marriage and re-marriage progression charts and mint records. The Peterson book is one you refer to, but the Tompkins book is one you can also study.
