If I can only have one book about...

Chico Marx: Any time you gotta too much, you gotta whole lot. Look, I explain it to you...sometimes you no got enough, it's too much, you gotta whole lot. Sometimes you got a little bit. You no think it's enough, somebody else maybe thinks itsa too much, itsa whole lot too. Now, itsa whole lot, itsa too much, itsa too much, itsa whole lot...same thing.

 

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Thats not confusing at all

 

Even a four year old child could understand it...get me a four year old child, I have no idea what it means... (Groucho)

 

If you only had a single book (the "desert island" scenario) why limit yourself to the narrow stereotypy of US coinage?
My recommendation is an old book, but one which would expand and round-out your knowledge exponentially.
R. A. G. Carson, "Coins of the World" - my copy is ca. 1970 (2nd revised edition) in 642 pages, with 64 high-quality plates, he takes the subject from the proto-coinages of the 7th century B.C. right up to the "present" (as he saw it in 1962) If you can absorb even a significant fraction of the information he presents about the coinages of virtually every country that ever existed, you will be among the numismatic cognescenti.

 

Okay! Bust Halves, you need Overton's guide, as mentioned above. Some will say the newer editions aren't as good, but I disagree. Overton is the standard reference. Someone mentioned Souders as well, but I wouldn't buy that unless you really wanted to get into Bust Halves.

For early copper, Whitman's guide is by QDB. I haven't read it, but most of QDB's work is high quality. That is going to be a generalist text, but it will give you a good foundation for the series. If you want to dive deep and start looking at varieties, each separate series is going to have its own book.

As for Gold - the first book you should buy is the "Encyclopedia of US Gold Coins" by Garrett and Guth. It covers all gold coins minted in the US, and gives you an instant idea of every date and mintmark for all series. It's a hefty work, but they had unprecedented access to the Smithsonian collection, and many of the photographs in this book are from there. I highly recommend this book as a starting place if you are interested in gold.