Well my daughter is making fun of me for spending as much as I did on these books. But they got delivered today and holy cow at the size of these things..and skimming over them they seem to be just a wealth of knowledge. She asks why I bought books when I have internet and the only response I can seem to come up with is, I like the books better lol. Anyone else out there use these and like them?
Yes I have them from the 2016 edition. Mine were on sale for $110.00 shipped for the whole set. Unless you collect up to date coins from the end date in the last book, these should keep you in the right direction for years without buying a new set. There are mistakes in each though so keep a sharp eye out when something seems off. The historical info is priceless.
Did these come with a CD version? Last time I bought them, they came with a CD and I use that extensively. So much easier to search.
I actually have the Krause books in PDFs and they're great. They are indexed by country so it's easy to go where you want to go. I'm normally a paper book person but for this the digital is invaluable.
A library is essential for specialized material - I have over 1000 books, auction cats, etc., and I still find myself buying more. For special stuff, or things I know about, I would never defer to Krause. This being said, with general refs like these, the simple matter of fact is that they are easier to reference than a web search - I like my website to be like a LCS, with prices starting at $5 - I simply cannot spend that much time on cheaper items, and being able to open a book in 15 seconds, rather than searching on the web for several minutes / up to a half hour for reliable results is a huge benefit. Books are always a good investment, IMHO, if they refer to a specific field of interest.
These were given to me by a world coin dealer friend of mine. He buys new ones almost every year. ( current value thing) There is so much information in them that does not change and is very hard to find on the internet, like mintage numbers, minter's marks, etc...
I have the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s, books. I see a 1600 on here. I should get one. They last like a decade
In general, I find that it's the other way around -- finding and copy/paste a result on the Web from a trusted source in seconds, versus minutes to find and retrieve a book, find the right section of it, and transcribe the information I need. On the other hand, browsing a book is pleasant in its own way, it makes it a little harder to get dragged down a rabbit-hole, and nobody's going to toss ads at you based on what you look up.
I think shipped I paid about $130 for the pair which at first I thought was crazy but then after I read reviews on them and got my hands on mine I can see why they are expensive. There is just an information overdose contained in these and I absolutely couldent be happier with my purchase..unfortunately no tho mine did not come with a CD version
None of mine had CD's either. I had the choice to buy digital, and I didn't. Plus, the books images are life size, I've compared coins by size when they are incredibly worn. The prices for some are a little high, like any guide but overall it is certainly great to have around.
@-jeffB It takes time to find QUALITY results online... At least I know I can find a decent to good result in a book that I know I have fairly quickly. Otherwise, unless for some reason my google searches are really poorly jiggered, search engines pull up absolute crapola in terms of ID / valuation - often just bringing me to live, overpriced / mis-identified ebay listings. This, by the way, includes the mis-transcriptions on both the NGC and PMG websites, as good as they are.
My 2005 copies didn't come with a CD. I'm not a big collector of world coins, so having current issues is not a big deal for me.
They are great for browsing. You see coins you'd probably never see on ebay. You find coins you like and can then search for them.
Good purchase IMO Mine are in the upper left of my Ancient/medieval/world coin bookshelf. I love a good reference book
Old school is best. I love hard copy books/ always will. Just ordered the 2 volume "Gold coins of the Italian States" from Nomisma.
I buy many hard copy books because there is information in them that is not present online (yet). For this reason, I still love them. But the ease of use of electronic books, or well laid out websites, easily beats the hardcopy equivalent. I'd much rather have a searchable PDF of the Krause book than a hard copy. For general reference - the Krause books are literally online in the form of the NGC price guide (which draws from the Krause database). Everything in Krause is on the NGC website. There's also Numista, which has everything in Krause and often more.
