What reference book(s) does every coin collector need?

I've been considering buying some reference material. I like Lincolns and Indian cents, Buffalo and war nickels and half dollars, but may buy most anything with eye appeal. I've got a new regular Red Book and a Buffalo book by David Lange. What other references might you experienced collectors recommend? Thanks.

 

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Since you're posting in the US coins forum, I'll say these:

• A current-ish Red Book, for (very) general information. Ignore the price section though.
  
• A grading guide. I recommend the ANA book as a start.
• Specific references on the series you are interested in.
• (Optional but very nice) The Cherrypicker's Guide to Rare Die Varieties or other series-specific variety book.

Those are the essentials, IMO. There are other good general books out there, like The Expert's Guide to Collecting & Investing in Rare Coins by Q. David Bowers. (Actually, anything by him is a good read.) There are also other good books on grading, and other aspects of numismatics, like, for example Numismatic Forgery by Charles Larson. But, the 3-4 I listed will get you started.

 

Pauls list is a good starting off point that all should have . Another cheap series of books are the Redbook guide books on each series like Buffalo nickels or United States commemorative coins , these will give you some general and specialized information on series you're thinking of . Another excellent book that you'll have to buy used is the PCGS "Official Guide to Coin Grading and Counterfeit detection . It's a must read for any collector to help one understand how the tpgs grade and how to detect counterfeits .

 

The Mega Red Book is excellent

 

Honestly, I would start checking out books on coins from the library. Read them and see what strikes your fancy. I used to be a US coin person, (bust and SL halves mainly), but after discovering the history found on ancient coins made the switch.

The point, though, is that every coin series can be interesting. Go check out random coin books. My bet will be that some today unconsidered area of numismatics will enthrall you. This could be classic commemorative, trade tokens, large sized currency, bolivian pesos, or ancient Roman denari. There is no such thing as too much knowledge, even on coin series you don't collect.

 

I'm going to throw "eBay for Dummies" into the mix.

 

One that I like is "Grading Coins by Photographs" by Q. David Bowers. It has nice pictures and written descriptions for grading various coin series.

 

Indians cents? Great news! The greatest experts ever are still actively writing books. We can rub elbows with the best!

Get Rick Snow's latest. It's available with regular binding, spiral binding (recommended for hard working books), and PDF (yay!).

Also... ask lots of questions of our delightful friend The Penny Lady!

 

Strongly agree.

With these, you're off to great start.

The third is particularly useful. Since you have David Lange's wonderful Buffalo 5c book, you're on the right track.

Just two pieces of advice:

1. Enjoy.
2. Now that you're armed and dangerous, cherrypick ruthlessly. It's the essence of our sport.

 

The reference book every collector needs is an Internet browser. Virtually every issue can be easily evaluated/attributed from information freely available online. Once the individual collector chooses to drill down and specialize, individual print books relevant to that category would be of use to have all the ancillary knowledge in one place.

The only print book I use in attribution is Overton. If you see me attribute any other coin here, I've acquired the information online, usually specifically for that coin. It's not like I already know this stuff.

 

Buying books? You are wise indeed, young Jedi.

Get the grading guides mentioned above. Add "Grading US Coins" (Halperin), indispensable for grading mint state coins.

Go to coin shows and look at every uncirculated Buffalo nickel you can find. Hundreds of 'em.

If you can get the CDN greysheet February 2013 monthly issue, it has a terrific article about buffalo nickel strike.

Read Lange's book, paricularly the upfront stuff.

Then ponder this mystery:

What are the differences when evaluating high grade Buffalo nickels from 1913 T1 Philly, 1926 San Fran, and 1938 Denver?

 

So, having a current Red Book and Lange's Buffalo book, I ordered Rick Snow's Indian and Flying Eagle book, the PCGS grading book by Dannreuther, and a paper money guidebook by Friedberg. Thank you all for you input.

 

As a newbie, I agree with all of the above suggestions, especially with Medoraman. Go to your library first ( mine had over 13 books) I could review to see which ones I wanted to add to my permanent collection. Then went to the local half price book store and started buying my collection of books. Also as above, the Internet is your friend (make sure you get multiple reference sources that don't conflict on their "facts". Enjoy learning. This is a great hobby and there a lot of good friends on this forem to learn from.

 

Great start and some great reading, they'll both come in handy especially the PCGS book for all its different aspects in grading and counterfeit detection ! The Snow book is good too as he's the top expert on Indian cents .

 

I'd suggest the Krause Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1900-2000. See if you like any world coins which are abundant and affordable. You can get a used one for 20 on ebay. The ANA official grading standards is good, now in color. I have some used books by Alan Hubert, his questions amd answers books are good. Scott Travers has pretty good advice too in his books

 

You may not even need that anymore.

http://maibockaddict.com/

 

These are great suggestions!
I recently read "The Art of Grading Coins" by Jadon Poe. I wish I had read it years ago when I started this endeavor. It is short and succinct and describes how coins are made, how that relates to how they are graded, and what to look for when grading. It provides general information that can be applied to any series and is a good foundation before you get into specifics of a particular coin type.

 

Just a small correction for anyone going looking for this book... it's actually The Art and Science of Grading Coins by Jason Poe.

 

Ooooh. Bookmark!

Actually I like Overton's book better; the images are large enough for realistic detail and flipping pages goes faster than clicking links. Do this in the style of the Early Dollar Attribution Wizard, and I'll sell my book.

 

You can also use Alan's (coinzip) attribution site which I (strictly from habit) use more often than Dave's (mailbockaddict).
http://coinzip.com/bustieguide/attribute.php