Since we're often told to buy the book before the coin, we should all have plenty of books, right? I'm not absolutely drowning in coin books, but here is what I have: 1. A Guide Book of United States Coins by Yeoman, Bresset (Red Book) 2. A Guide Book of United States Coins Deluxe Edition, 1st Edition by Yeoman, Bresset (BIG Red Book) 3. Whitman Encyclopedia of Mexican Money Volume 1 by Don and Lois Bailey 4. Mexican Beauty/Belleza Mexicana Un Peso Caballito by Allan Schein 5. Numismatique japonaise by E. de Villaret 6. Japanese Coinage by Jacobs and Vermeule 7. Le Règne De L'Empereur Probus Histoire et Numismatique by Hiland and Oliva 8. The Frank Brady Collection of English Hammered Groats Spink Catalog 2011 9. Collecting Medieval Coins: A Beginner's Guide by Torongo 10. Tesoros Del Gabinete Numismatico by Museo Arqueológico Nacional 11. The Gros Tournois by Royal Numismatic Society 12. Monnaies Du Canada 33e Edition by Haxby and Willey 13. Heritage U.S. Coin Auction April 27-29, 2016 Platinum Night by Heritage 14. Early Japanese Coins by Hartill 15. Small Silver Henry VIII - Commonwealth by Withers 16. England's Striking History A Brief History of England and its Silver Hammered Coinage Edited By Perkins 17. 日本貨幣カタログ by Japan Numismatic Dealers' Association 18. Les Monnaies Royales Françaises by Clairand and Prieur
All of my library titles? I have a list in my sdb I did a few years ago for insurance, but way too long to list here. I have about 800 books on ancient coins, 50 on US coins, 200 on world coins, and then a few hundred on the history of these eras. These are my "better books". Other books reside in other bookshelves.
I have the Morgan Encyclopedia, Overton and Krause, and nothing else in print. Never been one to collect the treeware, although I admire those who do. It's a subset of numismatics all its' own.
While I don't have as many as this, I'm sure that if I tried to list all of them, my monitor would probably collapse. Chris
I wasn't bragging. Ancient and world coins simply beg TONS more references than US or modern coins do. In ancient coins you can have a book only from coins of one city during a certain time frame, but if you don't have that book you are at a huge competitive loss in knowledge. Chris is as knowledgable or more than I in most numismatic subjects. Its just I am not very specialized in ancients, (leading to more books needed), and have chosen a much more "book intense" area of the hobby to play in.
I didn't take it as bragging. FWIW, there is one subject that I only wish I could have more research material, and that is French medals. The Monnaie de Paris does not have a comprehensive catalog for their medals. Instead, they produce one issue per year which lists all of the medals they produced for that period. These catalogs are very scarce, and if you were lucky enough to be able to find one issue for each year of, say, the 19th century, it would cost you about $2,000. Chris
Well besides the crates of books in the office here's what sits next to my seat in the family room. These I keep at an arms reach in case I need to look up something on a coin.
I have quite a few books and auction catalogs in my numismatic library. Many are rarely used either due to there being better electronic sources or simply not being related to my focus area but the books that I use relatively frequently are: 1. Crawford's Roman Republic Coinage 2. The BMC catalogues, old & long out of print, but I have PDFs and they're excellent for some of the provincial types of the Republic 3. The CNG Goodman catalogs(43, Triton, 45, 46 and 47) 4. Numismatica Ars Classics 61 & 63 "The RBW Collection" 5. Andrew McCabe's paper on Anonymous Republican bronzes. I downloaded it from Academia.edu and decided it was worth printing all 75 pages or whatever because it's an excellent reference to have in-hand 6. Vecchi 3 - another excellent reference for RR bronzes, flawed as it may be(from frequent misattributions)
Well, there's a bunch of books on my bookshelf. Then there are all the online books freely accessible, like the Newman Numismatic Portal and PCGS repositories. Since I'm an ANA member, I can count their library, too, right?
I have too many for one bookcase the ones I use most are the Overton book , both CWT books , ANA Grading Guide , big and regular Redbooks , PCGS grading ans counterfeit detection book comes in handy , a lot of specialty books on different series , Breens encyclopedia was the most expensive book I have but isn't up to date anymore . Plus there's just so much on the Internet that I really haven't found too many I must have . One I forgot was From Mine to Mint , which I feel is a must read though I'm still working my way through it . I also plan to get the new trade dollar book if and when it ever comes out . I also want some books on Roman Repulic and Greek coins .
I don't have very much reference material because little exists for the series I collect. I would rather spend money on coins I collect than buy books on coins I do not. It's the same philosophy I have on buying coins outside of my series, Every dollar I spend on something else is one dollar less for my primary series which can be used for coins I want more. The only real reference book I have is for the Spanish colonial pillar coinage, Gilboy's "The Milled Columnarios of Central and South Amarica" published in 1999. Most "reference books" in my experience are really price guides and if not, basic beginner material that I acknowledge has value but I don't believe really tells you more than what you can learn yourself on the internet today or that you wouldn't learn by looking at auction listings. I have a low number of US coin books from the 1980's on a variety of series and in my opinion, this is what they are like.
