Cash in Your Coins: Selling the Rare Coins You’ve Inherited 2nd Edition, by Beth Deisher, Whitman, 2014, 304 pages, $9.95. Intended for the person who knows nothing, I found it enlightening. I am ignorant in many areas of U.S. numismatics. When I worked for Coin World as their international editor, Bill Gibbs assigned me several tutorials in American numismatics. I had to produce publishable work on topics I knew nothing about, such as the pattern coins of 1792, the Paquet Double Eagles, and national currency paper money. In fact, the core of the presentation includes information that should be in the Red Book. The Red Book credits the Large Cents 1796-1807 to Robert Scott. Deisher nods to Gilbert Stuart and John Eckstein for the obverse and Joseph Wright for the reverse. Deisher agrees with Breen and Taxay; argue that as you wish. I can recommend this book highly to anyone collecting the broad spectrum American coins. Perhaps the strongest feature of this book is its suggestion that the new owner start with Lincoln Cents. Any collection is likely to have pounds of them in jars or cans. Sorting them and searching them will provide a good “basic training” or “crash course” in numismatics as a collecting hobby. I do have some quibbles. One problem for me was the lack of important information about pricing at the opening of the narrative. Deisher cites the Red Book several times, never warning the reader until pages 210-211 that dealers do not pay Red Book prices. Finally, there in Chapter 10 she does nicely dissect the distinctions among the Red Book, Blue Book, Greysheet, and Bluesheet. I realize that you cannot say everything all to once on Page 1 but some forewarning could easily point to the later details. Although Deisher does cite important repunched dates for various issues, the term is never defined or explained. The discussion of die doubling, for example on page 48, for the famous 1955 Lincoln Cent, is cursory. It would not be a problem except that so many collectors are optimistic; and it is reasonable to expect that many collections are infected with misidentified “die chatter”, if not for this one example, then for many other instances. Similarly, it is not until Chapter 8, on page 169, that Deisher alerts the ignorant inheritor and new owner of the likely presence of fakes. Any large accumulation can have several. That brings me back to why it is so easy to endorse this book for its substantive content. I failed the test on page 169. Clearly, I do not know what a Morgan Dollar is supposed to look like. So, for me, this book is an important addition to my library and will sit next to the Red Book.
Nice book report. Thanks for posting. All I have to add is that having liquidated large portions of my collection over the past year or so, is that I've learned a lot more about coin values by actually selling the coins than I could ever learn from a book. That being said, a book like this certainly has its value, especially for those unfamiliar with coins.
