I just did but couldn't find any. I am wondering what the titles of books might be to search for. thanks for any help!
The Red Book is a handy reference. In the bibliography section for gold quarter eagles is the following: Gold Dollars(and Other Gold Denominations), Akers, David W. United States Gold Coins: An Illustrated History, Bowers, Q. David Major Varieties of U.S. Gold Dollars(and Other Gold Denominations), Breen, Walter Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties, John W. and Harry W. Bass Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins, 1795-1933, (2nd ed.), Garret, Jeff and Ron Guth https://www.numislit.com/pages/books/3123/walter-breen/monographs-on-u-s-gold-die-varieties https://www.numislit.com/pages/book...oin-varieties-a-study-of-die-states-1795-1834
Your best bet might be one of these two: https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/pr...arieties-a-study-of-die-states-1795-1834.html https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/encyclopedia-of-us-gold-coins-1795-1933.html
Speaking of teaching people to fish! I've had the Red Book for decades, of course, but it never occurred to me to look at its bibliographic notes and use them as a jumping-off point. So, into the tackle box it goes!
The book on early American gold coins by John Dannreuther and Harry Bass is the best. It has great photos and information on every known variety.
I agree that the Dannreuther/Bass book is great. It is essentially a book covering all of the early US gold coins ($2.50, $5, and $10) in the Harry W. Bass, Jr. collection that are on display at the ANA Money Museum in Colorado Springs. Only a couple of new early gold die marriages have been discovered since the book was published, but I don’t think that any new quarter eagle die marriages have been discovered.
Between that one above, and this one below, you've pretty much got it covered when it comes to US gold. Best two books there are on the subject in my opinion.
It covers everything in the displayed collection and then some. Harry's gold collection was either complete or nearly complete by die variety, and it was supposed to be kept together by the Bass Foundation and made available to researchers, but part of it was sold off by the Foundation and then the rest loaned to the ANA museum. That got the Foundation off the hook for expenses of storage, display, and insurance for the collection. and giving researchers access is now the ANA's headache.
My understanding was that they only sold duplicates. Harry Bass had a tendency to buy everything, such that he'd have several examples of very rare coins. The ANA museum should have a comprehensive collection, minus the duplicates. Is that wrong?
I believe that the collection has at least one example of every die marriage Bass owned, except for one ($10?) that was accidentally sold without realizing it needed to be kept for the core collection. Bass did have duplicates (and triplicates, quadruplicates, etc.) for many of his die marriages, and the book mentions how many of each he owned.
The same dies that struck $2.50 eagles also struck 10 cent pieces. A comprehensive collection of the coins was sold within the last 20-25 years.
No. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the collection has at least one example of every die marriage Bass owned, except for the one I alluded to. Since he never owned an 1822 half eagle, he did not own a duplicate 1822 half eagle either. Similarly, since there was only one 1870-S $3 for Bass to buy, he did not own a duplicate 1870-S $3. Bass did not own all early gold die marriages (for example, he only owned two of the six unique half eagle die marriages that were known when he built his collection; the Smithsonian held two of the other six unique die marriages). He did, however, get closer to a complete early gold collection than anyone could ever hope to achieve.
