I am looking for a book on world coins and this one has the years that I am planning to collect 1930-1950 would Modern World Coins (Official Red Books) do the job? It has a good price and I was thinking of putting a kind of world coin type set together for a couple of countries.
I know the Krause catalogs are good price guides. I've personally never read the Modern World Coin book, but from reading its description on Wizard Coin Supply it seems like a good book to me. I say go for it!
Krause is the best that I know of. World Coin Gallery is a great free site! That list most of the world coins!
Krause is the standard for World coins. If you can't find it at your local library check here... http://www.shopnumismaster.com/prod...ns?r=numppcg&gclid=CJek9Zyj_KICFYZi2godjApNkQ $25 for this book is pretty much an early Christmas gift!
Krause is well known, by those who collect world coins, for being just about the worst price guide there is. For information they are great - for prices, forget about it.
Well all price guides are troublesome. Krause is just a little more troublesome since they are priced by dealers who have their own interests besides those of collectors. All price guides are like this, its just Krause are more so. When it comes to guides, always remember that low priced coins are always overpriced, and high end coins are usually underpriced. Yes, you may have to pay $1 for a coin from a dealer if you need one, but do not ever think if you have 100 of them they are valued at $100. The dealer needs a minimum amount of money per coin to even bother with. A 100 of a coin listing in KM for $1 a piece may be worth $20. On the other end, rare coins are rare, and will always be desired, so dealers have their own interest in keeping prices in guidebooks down, since they know they can always sell those coins regardless of book price. Overall, for world coins KM is the standard numbering, so you must own them. I would always try to buy more specialized books whenever you can, since these will be your big advantage over other collectors. Hope this helped.
KM is pricey for common stuff, the junk that accumulates in every coin shop in the country. Think about it, if dealers are the ones supplying prices, and they have all of these coins, their inclination is to have them worth a buck or two just so they can sell them for $.50 and give someone a "deal". KM also usually has lower prices on true rarirties, since dealers know even if KM lists it for $600 they can sell them for $1500, so a value of $600 helps them buy those coins cheaper. I am not trying to defame KM, but I have heard this said many times and find it to be true. Their books have great information, but not nearly as good as a book dedicated to a specific series. Too many collectors only rely on KM, while advanced collectors get more specific resources so they will always have more knowledge than others. Since KM is the default numbering system, though, it is needed in every world coin collectors library.
