A coin collector is only as good as his references. Is their a book you use so often that you almost have it memorized? What numismatic book can't you live without? Personally I find myself using the PCGS Grading & Counterfeit Detection Guide so much I need to get a new copy because my pages have begun to fall out.
I have a few dozen reference books. I find myself using all of them at any given time, but no one so much that I have it memorized. I can't live without all of them! Chris
US Early Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794-1836 by Parsley. I've even added my own pages as new varieties have been discovered, or I've needed to add notes and diagnostics of my own. Guy
The Redbook is like family. We like to talk bad about it, but honestly, n00b to pro, if it weren't for the Redbook I doubt many of us would be collectors to begin with.
For US coins, I start with Breen, then onto specialized references like Overton, WB, or Sheldon depending on what it is.
For me every month of the Green sheet, books become so outdated very quickly as there Values actually mean nothing by the time there released!
Kinda, I believe the correct way to put it would be say it is the definitive book on the gold coinage of the Low Countries from the time of Charles V (roughly 1546) until the late 1800's. Delmonte did a separate book for the silver coinage of the same time period. But I specialized in gold, so the book on gold always meant more to me
my set of krause catalogues are essential for me, and i have a very old book about british coinage from celtic times to the 1950's
Isn't it pretty specialized for your "world coins" pick? It would be like me picking Sellwood's Parthian Coins for my pick on Ancients. Great for what it covers, but pretty narrow....