I need to buy a guide that includes errors on pennies but also I have silver dollars and half dollars from late 1800's and dimes-mercury through now but there are too many to buy at one time. Which would be best to start, please.
Did you inherit some coins? What do you wish to do, learn about coins and continue collecting or find out their value?
I have to learn as I have 11 brothers and sisters with buckets too. And some of the grandkids are learning with me on weekends.
Find a coin dealer near you. Visit his shop during the day in the middle of the week when it is quiet. Tell him you are starting out and buy a Red Book and a 10X hand lens. Get the dealer to show you how to use it. Then go on the internet and buy a 3X,4X,7X (don't buy the 4,5,9 model) hand lens. Buy some Whitman coin folders to put the coins into.. Don't buy any coins from him YET. That may come later.
I respectfully disagree, you dont need 4 different loupes. But I agree on the red book and Whitman folders
I agree. A simple magnifying glass around the house can be fine, especially at first. You will need it especially for small details on small coins like dimes and cents. Any year redbook will work really, so you can pick up one a few years old for almost nothing on Ebay or something. If you want to check coins for varieties, picking up older copies of the 2 cherrypickers guides would be helpful too. The dirty secret in coin collecting is coin price guides are not very accurate, and not much changes each year, so older editions of books like this are much cheaper and just about as helpful.
Oh yes ma-am..... The Redbook is the tool you need right now. And you can get a previous year copy usually at outlet stores for pennies on the dollar. And the usable information in them never changes. I used my 1977 copy until just last year.
Brenda I'm not really sure when you say errors that it is errors you want to look for. I'm wondering if varieties are not what you mean. If it is varieties, these books will help you. And you would need volumes 1 and 2 - both. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=The Cherry Pickers Guide to Rare Die Varieties
A Red Book is always useful but there are plenty of free online resources also. You can learn a lot from these... www.doubleddie.com, www.briansvarietycoins.com, www.maddieclashes.com. Just sit yourself down for a spell...y'all come back now, heah?!