Books on Coins

No subject is more important to the rare-coin collector or investor than grading. Learning to grade the right way can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Now, award-winning professional numismatist Q. David Bowers has written a unique set of step-by-step grading instructions for every U.S. coin, from half cents to double eagles.

He explains the evolution of grading standards, how to “read” a coin’s surfaces, expert techniques, smart buying tips, aspects of today’s marketplace, and more. This detailed, insightful text is combined with hundreds of high-resolution color photographs to help you grade your entire coin collection.

Here’s what the experts are saying about this revolutionary new book:

“Grading Coins by Photographs is magnificent! A must-read for today’s sophisticated collector. This will be the most important grading book in my numismatic library.”
—John Albanese, cofounder of PCGS, NGC, and CAC

Grading Coins by Photographs will be available before Thanksgiving 2008. It has 384 pages, is spiralbound for ease of use, and is illustrated in full color. It covers circulated, Mint State, and Proof coins. The retail price is $19.95.

Available from Whitman Publishing

Will Nipper’s new book, In Yankee Doodle’s Pocket: The Myth, Magic and Politics of Money in Early America, offers fresh perspectives on America’s celebrated ascent from disparate colonial outposts to sovereign power. Through the day-to-day instruments of trade and commerce, this work reveals the myriad threads of culture and hidden history that together wove a new nation. Based on years of research, the associated facts, legends and theories are presented in a conversational narrative that all audiences can read and appreciate.

In Yankee Doodle’s Pocket links everyday objects with the larger-than-life people, events, societies and upheavals that brought them into existence. The tale begins with the earliest European forays into the wilderness and ends with the 1840 dawning of America’s industrial age. In the frontier beginning, barter monies sprang from fields, forests and oceans. In the end monotonously uniform coins and printed paper spewed from urban factories born of the Industrial Revolution. Until then, America’s coins and paper currency were works of art, as beautiful in their simplicity and hand-crafted variation as their European counterparts were in sophisticated perfection. These objects reveal an America that was surprisingly cosmopolitan and commercial from the start. They helped communicate ideas, foster expansion and enable transformation.

Available from Bowmanstone Press $58.95 + Shipping & Handling.

SBN 978-0-9816638-0-7
Size: 8.5 x 11 inches, 576 pages, 4 lbs. 6 ounces
Binding: Premium hardcover, sewn, copper foil stamping on front and spine

New Book Teaches Techniques and Tips on How to Photograph Coins

(Irvine, CA) – As the use of the Internet and electronic visual media becomes more of a vital part of the coin industry, photographing coins, either raw or slabbed, has become an increasing concern with collectors and dealers. How do I get a good detailed image of this coin? What are the tools I need? Do I need to purchase any expensive equipment? What kind of lighting should I use? What techniques can I use to produce a good image of this coin?

In Numismatic Photography (published by Zyrus Press), Mark Goodman teaches the reader in an easy-to-read and visually rich guidebook format on how to image quality photos of coins with your digital camera. Whether you are using a digital camera for the first time or you already have experience in other fields of photography, Goodman addresses typical problems faced by the photographer, recommends ways of improvements and offers specific tips and techniques for raw and slabbed coins.

“[Mark] Goodman’s first numismatic book is an impressive addition to the coin collector’s arsenal of knowledge… Numismatic Photography is recommended for anyone interested in making better coin photos, or in learning how these images are made.”–Roger Burdette, Author of the Renaissance of American Coinage series

Some of the chapters included are Imaging Concepts, Color and Luster, High Contrast Coins, Low Contrast Coins, Toned Coins, Special Imaging Techniques and Image Presentation, among others. The book also includes two appendices: a Troubleshooting Guide and General Rules for Coin Photography. Continued

Available from Wizard Coin Supply Here

The book is a compilation of the last 10 years of Rare Coin Investments’ Top 100 Insights and Value Guide quarterly newsletter. It includes the first Fall, 1997 Value Guide with prices for Top 100 Morgan dollars as well as a current Value Guide to compare how prices of Top 100 coins have changed over the past decade since publication of the Top 100 book.

A Decade of Top 100 Insights offers wisdom, experience and knowledge from the world’s most recognized experts on the subject of Morgan and Peace dollars. According to Jeff Oxman, Founding President of the SSDC, “Peruse the pages of this book, and you’ll get a glimpse of VAM history unfolding before your eyes!”

Noted author Bill Fivaz states “Michael Fey has put his considerable talents to work in assembling all the pertinent data to make your quest for those elusive VAMs as easy as can be”. Leroy Van Allen advises, “This book is a ‘must buy’ for all silver dollar collectors and dealers”.

The book offers digital images of new discoveries, ultra rare 8TF varieties, attribution guides to 1878-s B1 reverse (long nocks), 1888-O Oval O’s, 1899-O “micro o” varieties, and Hot 50 and Top 50 varieties. Also provided are several Condition Census (Top 6 certified coins), population reports and analyses, reportes on new record prices, and insights into the best Top 100 varieties in the most optimal grades for both collecting and investing. Continued

In this monumental new hardbound work, printed and bound in the U.S.A., you will find 448 pages covering each year and the known die marriages for those years, along with background of the early mint. Included are quick finding charts and pictorials, as well as, oversized color photos of every die marriage. Along with new rarity ratings and a new condition census, as an added bonus there are in-depth studies on the rare 1823s and 1827s.

The appendixes are chock full of interesting information on among other things, patterns, private re-strikes, error coins, and the mysterious E & L countermarks, along with several useful charts, die re-marriage listings, and much, much more!!

The finished book is slated to hopefully be back from the printer before the ANA show in Baltimore and is now on sale at an introductory pre-publication price of just $79.00 delivered. This price is only good until July 15th, at which time it will be raised to $89.00 plus postage. Get yours ordered today!

Please send all payments, comments and questions to:
Steve M. Tompkins
P.O. Box 1946
Sequim, WA 98382
Smt115@aol.com

Coin collectors and enthusiasts have long been familiar with the story of two boys who unearthed a fortune in gold coins while playing in a Baltimore basement in 1934.

But the rest of the story trailed off to a few odd details. One of the boys died young, the other ran into trouble with the law. No one seemed to know more.

A lifelong coin collector,  Author Leonard Augsburger was determined to uncover the rest of the story. What happened to the kids? The gold? Who buried it in the first place?

Meticulously researched, Treasure in the Cellar delves into the lives of the boys and their families, recreates the hours at the police station after the boys reported what they found, and describes months of courtroom drama as descendents of several former property owners came forward, each claiming the fortune for themselves.

Paperback copies can be ordered from Amazon.com while hardbound (priced at $30) and deluxe leather-bound editions can be ordered directly from Len at Amazon at leonard_augsburger@hotmail.com. Continued