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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 28522, member: 57463&quot;]It depends on what you have a book collection <u>for.</u>&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Your list of books tells me that you are a general collector of U.S. Type coins.&nbsp; You mentioned getting the <i>Complete Guide to Franklin Half Dollars</i>, so, clearly, you have an area of special interest.&nbsp; Basically, the first rule (quoting the late coin dealer Aaron Feldman) is <b>&quot;Buy the book <u>before</u> you buy the coin.&quot; </b>&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you look at the Red Book, you will see that each major section has a bibliography.&nbsp; <b>Those are the books that they used to write the Red Book.</b> </p><p><br /></p><p><i>United States patterns and related issues </i> by Andrew W. Pollock is all about the coins that never became coins and the designs that did. If you love US coins, you will love this book.</p><p><br /></p><p>So far, we are only talking about American coins.&nbsp; A few people have posted their books about other areas.&nbsp; For me, in ancient Greeks, the must-have book is David Sear&#039;s <i>Greek Coins and Their Values (2 vols).</i> However, there are many other books, each for a different area of specialization within the broad area &quot;ancient Greek.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>So far, no one has recommended Eric Newman&#039;s <i>Early Paper Money of America</i>.&nbsp; It is <u>the</u> book for colonial paper money and as such is important to an understanding of American history, whether or not you actually collect the notes -- which I do not.&nbsp; Newman purposely chose the title of his book to reflect <i>Early Coins of America</i> by Philip Crosby, which is about colonial and early Federal coins and tokens.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Bust Half Dollar collectors consider Overton to be a &quot;bible.&quot;&nbsp; However, Overton rests on Beistle.&nbsp; Now there is <i>The Ultimate Guide to Attributing Bust Half Dollars</i> by Dr. Glenn R. Peterson which builds on Overton and goes far beyond. <b>The point is that every area of numismatics has its own special authorative references.</b> </p><p><br /></p><p>The ANA library catalog is online at <a href="http://www.money.org" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.money.org" rel="nofollow">www.money.org</a>, but personally, I find the ANS library catalog easier to search and browse, at <a href="http://www.amnumsoc.org" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.amnumsoc.org" rel="nofollow">www.amnumsoc.org</a>.&nbsp; Then, there are the websites of the publishers themselves, such as DLRC, Stanton, and of course Krause and Amos.</p><p><br /></p><p>And speaking of Amos.&nbsp; The <i>COIN WORLD ALMANAC</i> is one of the &quot;must have&quot; books for U.S. numismatics and for numismatics, generally.&nbsp; If you know what a world almanac does for world history and world news, then you know what to expect from the <i>Coin World Almanac.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>... and so far, we have only discussed books (with a nod to auction catalogs).&nbsp; <b>Specialty magazines</b> such as <i>The John Reich Journal</i> and <i>Longacre&#039;s Ledger</i> are where books are born, incubated as articles.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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