I've received lots of good advice from the folks here. Thanks. I'm ready to buy a few books. The problem is that there are *so many*! My interests lie almost entirely in U.S. coins. I'm particularly fascinated with: St. Gaudens Double Eagles, Peace Dollars, Morgans, Trade Dollars, 20-cent pieces, and Flying Eagles. Would these books be a good place to start? I only want to spend ~$50 for now, so I'm thinking the first three (more than $50, I know...) I'm trying to avoid any unnecessary duplication and focus a little bit extra on Double Eagles... Encyclopedia of U.S Gold Coins 1795 - 1933 www.amazon.com/dp/0794822541 2nd Ed. Hardcover by Jeff Garrett/Ron Guth (Author) $49.15 The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins Hardcover-spiral by Kenneth Bressett (Editor), Q. David Bowers (Narrator) www.amazon.com/dp/0794819931 Used for $11.99 An Official Red Book: A Guide Book of Double Eagle Gold Coins: A Complete History and Price Guide www.amazon.com/dp/079481784X Paperback, by Q. David Bowers $13.20 Making the Grade: Comprehensive Grading Guide for U.S. Coins Beth Deisher (Author), William T Gibbs (Editor) www.amazon.com/product/dp/0944945635 Paperback – August 10, 2012 $28.65 Grading Coins By Photographs Spiral-bound www.amazon.com/dp/0794836879 Spiral-bound, by Q. David Bowers (Author) $16.32
The two best books, in my opinion, would be the ANA Grading Guide that you mention as well as the first edition of "PCGS Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection".
I've never seen it spiral-bound, but I have seen some of these first editions with weak spines and this makes me think they may have had a problem when produced. If so, it might not be a bad idea to purchase a copy and then hole punch it into a binder or something similar. Regardless, I think the first edition of the PCGS book is one of the best generalized coin books ever written.
Yeah, I prefer spiral-bound because you can lay the book down without holding onto the page. Thanks, Tom. Chris
The Gold Coins books is just a hair over $40 here: http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780794822545/page-1/
Truly, I don't know that the content between the two books is all that different, but the first edition was printed to a larger format and with heavier, more glossy and more substantial feeling pages that gave the book a heartier presence. The first edition also has something like 48-pages of full color images while the second edition has 16-pages of full color images. Remember that the second edition is a smaller format so these 16-pages will show smaller images or even fewer images. However, I doubt that the coupon for a free coin grading that was found in the first edition would still be honored by PCGS at this late date.
