I am looking for suggestions on books to get for hard times and conder tokens. What are the standard reference materials?
"Standard Catalog of United States Tokens 1700-1900 by Russell Rulau. I believe it is out of print now, it sells for a lot more than the list price on the paperback copy. I bought mine recently through one of the online booksellers, and it is a large book with lots of reading. But it is not comprehensive and I have some 19th century tokens from my community that are not listed in there. But a book is only as good as it's contributors. But the CWT are well covered in it.
Thanks Hobo and Scottishmoney, I just picked up a used copy of the Rulau book on ebay. Any other suggestions would be great!!!
For the Conder tokens you need Dalton and Hamer's Provincial Token Coinage of the 18th Century. There is a free PDF version on-line you can download if you can find it, and there are at least two pay digital versions available that are pretty good. Cost is around $70 or so. If you want an actual printed book, that is going to run you between $175 and $200 if you can find one. There was someone on Ebay not too long ago trying to move one for $175. You might try keeping an eye on some of the online used book dealers. I ran across a dealer in England a few months back who had a like new copy and didn't know what he had. I snapped it up for $90. I have three copies of it now. Just checked the book sellers and I find three that are selling a paperback print on demand version for $20. I might pick one up just to check on the quality of the reproduction. There is a copy of the 1996 edition on ebay right now ending in three days with a starting bid of $100
Thanks for the recommendations Conder, I have the one on ebay in my watch list. One more quick question, how are these prices, is there any kind of guidebook out there?
There has just recently been a price guide published for the Conders. The last good price guide published for the was Schwer back in 1983. I don't have a copy of the new guide yet so I don't know how accurate it is. It is probably fairly good but it will probably be out of date fairly quickly. One of the Digital versions has a price guide in it that gives estimates by grade and rarity level. The author also offered a free price guide based on an analysis of previous auctions but it only covers the counties of Norfolk through Yorkshire. I can't send you the guide from the digital version because it is copyrighted material, but he made the Norfolk through Yorkshire freely available and I can send you that.
I tell you, the one thing I would know about any price guide for these would be one word, UP! The prices I have noticed have seriously escalated. I do not mind, since this is a very interesting and beautiful series. I have never gotten into them, but I have always been sorely tempted to. I have a few I bought on a whim at CICF many years back. Too many coins to collect, not nearly enough time or money.
