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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 4017315, member: 74282&quot;]I found myself questioning the usefulness of expensive books when I began collecting as well. I had little trouble identifying coins, finding RIC numbers, etc, so I surmised the internet had largely supplanted the need for building a numismatic library. As I continued collecting, however, I began to run into questions that the internet sources couldn&#039;t answer. Questions like &quot;why is this coin attributed to a different mint than that one?&quot; or &quot;why is this coin attributed to time period X instead of Y?&quot;. I also ran into several cases where I knew there was further info on a specific type but seemingly all the online sources were using old info. For me, the usefulness of books is not so much in simply identifying coins but in going a step further and explaining the coins and arrangement as opposed to simply listing them, if that makes any sense. I sold my Sear books for instance because I felt they, as books whose purposes were almost entirely as catalogues, were useless once I had books that were more than catalogues. The one sear book I kept was History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators because it was much more than a catalog and had new information on many types.</p><p><br /></p><p>My suggestion if you&#039;re feeling the cost of books&nbsp; is daunting is to really spend some time making a prioritized list of the books you actually want and slowly work on it. I have such a list though I&#039;m actually almost to the end of it and need to start figuring out what&#039;s next. If you focus on getting books slowly it makes it easier to jump on deals rather than buying everything at full price.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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