Best coin books available

Lol yeah. My BMC Greek series is I believe 36 volumes and even IT is not nearly complete just for Greek coins, let alone Roman or any other cultures.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Breen's encyclopedia.

If you discount the errors and 'made up' information.

Breen never met a fact that he couldn't make up

 

Im trying to interpret that. Lol does that mean his books are not based on facts or that his facts have no evidence? Or is he just completely out there? Basically is the book any good sort of database for shipwreck coins?

 

Breen's Encyclopedia of US Coins. Maybe the best single reference on US coin, (but US only). Mr. Breen, (besides having personal "issues" that resulted in him dying in a penetentiary), was known to "make up" facts from time to time. He was a brilliant numismatist, though, and one of the greatest numismatic researchers of the last half of the 20th century for US coins.

Wikipedia can bring you up to date with his "issues" if you are curious.

Like I said, though, only US coins, so only covers .0001% of all coins ever issued.

 

Just out of curiousity. How does one make up a fact? A fact is known or discovered. They are not made up. Perhaps he told lies?

 

Which is why the very serious students of numismatics have their copies of references littered with notes to themselves making corrections or listing new information. These copies of books are priceless. One of the greatest thrills as a book buyer is being able to acquire one of these from a serious scholar.

I have relayed it before, but I once knew a very serious Byzantine dealer. He wore his Sear book down to nothing using it so much, and when he needed to replace it he hand copied over all of his notes to the newe volume, then burned the old one. He knew the information inside, his personal knowledge, was very valuable.

 

Which title book are we talking about exactly. Is it the us and colonial coins one with the black cover?

 

I'm a scientist as well as a full-time coin dealer and, as such, my training leads me to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" when it comes to Breen's massive tome. The work is date and I simply can't trust it. Therefore, even though I own a copy, I find it useless.

 

Try www.sedwickcoins.com featuring Frank Sedwick, author of "The Practical Book of Cobs," and other specialized volumes.

 

But even when it was written it was not the definitive work on any field. Its more like a redbook on steroids, good if you have only one book.

If i have the definitive work, like WB, i reach for it. If not i reach for breen.

 

Cool site.

Which book would WB be?

 

Sorry, Wiley Bugert, its the best for Seated Liberty halves. Its one of the series I used to collect when I did US coins. It was just an example, I could have said Valentine, Overton, etc. Every series will have at least one book considered the best. Those are what you truly need if you are going to collect a series in depth. Those are the books that truly save you money and increase your knowledge to a level higher than many dealers and other collectors.

THe Breen tries to be a "poor man's" version of all of these specific titles. It works to a degree, its much better and more complete than the redbooks, but its just not the same as having the specialty references.