No comments about A Guide Book of United States Type Coins (The Official Red Book).

2 comments about The Official Red Book: A Guide Book of Washington and State Quarters Dollars (Official Red Books).

1. This book isn't nearly as detailed as Bowers book on Morgan dollars.
   
   It has little detail compared to the Morgan dollars book



2. A Guide Book of Washington And State Quarters: Complete Source for History, Grading, and Prices provides a very specific, detailed resource for quarter collectors which pairs a history of quarter issues with tips on assessing coins, buying wisely, and valuing quarters from 1932 to date. Illustrations in full color throughout make identification easy - along with a grading guide and the latest values. Any coin collector specializing in quarters must have this.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

5 comments about Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins: 1795 - 1933, Circulating, Proof, Commemorative, and Pattern Issues.

1. If what one is expecting is a well illustrated overview of all gold issues, together with superb documentation of each and every piece of information presented, this is an epitomy of outstanding presentation and scholarship.
   
   On the other hand, if one would desire to know detailed facts about each particular date and mint issue, the die varieties and the like, there are alternatives in multiple volumes, from authors such as Doug Winter for the Southern Mints or Carson City, that certainly detail much more information about those aspects than a one volume book could hope to cover.
   
   I suppose much has to do with one's expectations. This book met my expectations much in the way that my volume of Breen does. Often it is a starting point. The information provided by Breen is not that deeply detailed compared with the immense amount of literature that has been published since his leaving the scene, and the varieties he identified often are not wholly complete. Yet, I have never found that to detract in the least from my enjoyment of Breen as light reading or my ability to use that volume as a first stop when viewing a coin in a series in which I have a limited knowledge.



2. If there was a book that was over hyped, this would be it. This book gives you nothing more than production amounts and supposed current values. There is nothing in this book that can't be found elsewhere. I was expecting an abundance of information on things to look for in a coin, similar in nature to Walter Breens works, die markings, die pairings. What I have gotten is a book that has some nice pictures....and thats it. Do yourself a favor and skip this book.



3. Any coin collector enchanted by TRULY rare classic U.S. coins (i.e., coins where mere DOZENS of examples still exist!) would do himself a huge favor by acquiring this volume. Here is one book that more than replaces the groundbreaking multi-volume U.S. gold work of David Akers.
   
   Believe it or not, there ARE still many bargains to be had in U.S. numismatics... and they reside in the U.S. gold series. Fact: Many U.S. gold coins dwarf in rarity the "keys" in any other U.S. series by 10X or even 100X.
   
   Amazingly, today's prices (even with gold bullion way up) simply don't begin to reflect this incredible rarity.
   
   Interested? Here's just the volume to guide you along the path to discovering all these hidden treasures.
   
   Does it really get any better than GOLD? I don't think so. It (and silver) are the only metals historically and universally recognized as REAL money. But gold stands alone as the one metal not subject to hideously damaging long-term environmental contamination.
   
   In its day and time, one gold coin might have represented an average working man's weekly or monthly wages. Accordingly, U.S. gold coins have historically been collected only by the super rich. But clearly this no longer need be the case. The rich collected ONLY the very top-grade examples available. These coins continue to be very expensive. Largely neglected, however, have been gold coins of lower grade (coins which would be perfectly acceptable specimens in any other U.S. series.) Bonus: In some cases, the gold content alone accounts for 30-50% of one's purchase price. So the value of your collection is meaningfully backed by gold itself.
   
   We are fortunate to live in a day and time where these lower grade examples of incredibly rare U.S. gold coins are still available (albeit with considerable searching) at true bargain basement pricing -- a combination of rarity and pricing guaranteed to quicken a coin collector's pulse.
   
   This all becomes clear in one glorious volume of amazing scope and breadth.
   
   The price of this volume is likewise bargain-priced. Hundreds of beautiful full color photos on hundreds of pages -- all on glossy heavy paper stock. Paradoxically, the bargain nature of this book about classic Americana is likely due to its having been printed in CHINA. But I have to give credit where credit is due: There is absolutely nothing second-rate about this book's cosmetics or content.
   
   My advice? Buy it as fast as your fingers can click on the order button!



4. This excellent,large coffee table type book lists every American Gold coin,proof,and pattern ever struck.Gives Population figures, mintages,beautiful pictures and the latest auction records and availability of all gold coins. No serious numismatist should be without this awesome reference book!!!!



5. Every now and then a real masterpiece of Numismatic research is created and made available to the public and the Encyclopedia of US Gold Coins: 1795-1933 is one of those masterpieces. As a professional coin dealer who specializes in better and rare dated gold coins I strongly suggest tha aquisition of this book as it will help the collector as well as investor of rare gold coins become more knowledgeable in the various series of US gold coins and there can never be too much information when researching this large and diverse area of coin collecting.

No comments about 2009 Redbook Leather Edition.

No comments about 2009 Washington Quarter Album with Territory Page.

5 comments about Chinese Cash: Identification and Price Guide.

1. There are several major problems with this work:
   1. Starting at page 131 and continuing to page 178, the illustration numbers do not match the numbers mentioned in the text. Thus, for example you will read that "The Tianming coins (Nos. 644-5) were cast by Nurhaci in AD 1616" but illustration numbers 644 and 645 (and the catalogue numbers too) actually refer to Ming rebel coins. No more than annoying if you recognize the characters for "tian ming" and find the correct illustration, but this defect will be a serious impediment to those who don't read Chinese.
   2. Pricing system is poorly explained. Jen tell us that his prices are "based on the current Chinese market conditions" but says that the reader cannot expect that a coin available in China for 10 yuan could still be purchased for that price in the US. He also notes that a coin valued at 1000 dollars in China should probably sell at around 3000 dollars in the US. With that Jen ends his price discussion, leaving the reader to wonder whether the values given in the book are the prices to be found in China, or China-based prices with the expected mark-up for US sale included.
   3. no citation of sources - ANYWHERE.
   4. no coin weights or weight ranges.
   5. history articles are written with an outdated Han nationalist bias. Learn how peasants chafed under the yoke of alien rule. Anti Yuan rebels strike "a common chord with freedom-loving people everywhere" - we have to hope we're not talking about Ming Tai Zhu. The Taiping rebellion is presented as an ethnic freedom fight against Manchu oppressors, a false start on the road to the overdue revolution of 1911.
   
   Still, updated types and realistic prices make this a useful work.



2. The previous reviews make good points for the most part and no need to repeat them here. So I will add a few additional comments. I have been a serious collector of Chinese coins for a dozen years or so with much of one full year and a dozen other trips spent scouring the local markets and back alleys of China searching for coins.

   A lack of comprehensiveness is endemic with anything Chinese, so too much can be made of Ren's omissions--it is after all an identification and pricing GUIDE. In the 1990s coins relatively common in Beijing may have been relative rarities in Chengdu, Urumuqi, Xian, Lanzhou, Datong, Shanghai, etc. This regional character of markets in China is indeed not only disappearing, but is leaping from regional to international which should result in a sorting out of rarity and price relative to a more coherent market demand.

   Ren's price guide is a very useful attempt to reconcile a coin's value to this rapidly approaching, more integrated international market. Rather than being "most useful only for the gullible", as an earlier reviewer unkindly suggested, I find it quite useful, thoughtful and honestly advanced with its assumptions and rationale clearly stated. Having followed the China, US and internet markets I think it is a very reasonable evaluation effort. I would differ in opinion here and there but that's what makes a market and Chinese price guides are by no means uniform either. I think Ren's valuations will be looked on as very conservative as the collector community expands and disposable income increases in Asia.

   I do think a next edition should collapse sections 1 and 2 into a single section. I would also ask Mr. Ren to throw another 100 (you pick a number) pages into the book to cover some of the more common Schjoth type omissions and add a bit more informative text. A very good job will be an even better one.




3. David Jen, an American citizen who spent much of the 20th century living in China, is a volunteer assistant at the American Numsimatics Society, the world's leading insitute for the study and conservation of coins. As a paid employee of the ANS, I would like to stress that the ANS does not endorse this work directly, and the following are my own opinions.

   Many collectors have primarily worked from one of four works in Western languages: the catalog of Terrien de Lacouperie, F. Schjoth, the George Fisher translation of the Ding Fubao collection, or the Arthur Coole series. Although there is much merit in all of these works, very few of them work with the economic history of China and are far more concerned with the aesthetics of the coins they collect. Primarily interest has centered on the spade and knife coinages during the Zhou period. Jen's work instead concentrates on coins that have a primary place within the economy, and key variants upon those coins. It is a much smaller catalog than the 6-volume Coole, which cannot be used easily, and I do not believe Mr Jen attempted to supplant the Ding Fubao or Schjoth catalogs.

   However, I am distressed that none of the readers have noted that there are fine catalogs now in the Chinese and Japanese languages, which are truly most important. The 12-volume Daxi catalog, published by the Shanghai Museum, is the standard reference work for Asian numismatists, which far supplants the Ding Fubao or Schjoth. In addition, it appears that French is no longer a reference language for numismatists, because the fine work of Francois Thierry of the Bibliotheque National is completely omitted in reviews.

   David Jen's book is a nice update to the Schjoth and "Fisher's Ding" catalogs for those who only read English, but anyone serious about Chinese coinage must read Chinese, and will instead use the Daxi. Thierry's many researches are important, and as his catalogs tend to represent hoards, are important for their economic significance. In sum, for the collector who only speaks English, this is a good supplement to the Schjoth and Fisher's Ding. In that sense it is an important addition to any numismatic library, but it does not supplant these earlier texts, nor do I think it was intended to do so. Serious scholars of Chinese numsimatic history may wish to use it for its variants of some Chinese coins, but their research is likely to be more profitable in working with the standard catalogs instead...




4. Dear Review reviewer - my previously submitted review was edited to omit a note the the effect that only part of the review was posted, and included my email so that readers could obtain the rest. I saw nothing in your review guidelines to forbid this, so why was it omitted? Please have the courtesy to contact me at SSemans@aol.com and explain how I may make it clear in this review that only part has been posted. Thank you.



5. ...The eighties and nineties have seen an explosion of numismatic research and publishing in China, but largely without benefit to western collectors. Very little has been translated, and most of the collector oriented catalogs are for the Chinese market, with no western-language text, and often without a numbering system. Although several concordances and attempts at a comprehensive catalog have been started in the past 50 years by westerners, some of them reaching published form, the standard has remained Schjoth's 1912 catalog of his collection. Recently George Fisher published a very usefully enhanced photocopy version of Ding Fubao's 1940 catalog, the long-time standard among Chinese collectors, and a better work than Schjoth in every way though lacking in background information and sidelights such as calligraphy and weight varieties, and mother coins. When I learned that a new work, drawing on Chinese sources and authored by New York dealer and tireless ANS volunteer David Jen was already in press from Krause, I hoped that Chinese Cash: Identification and Price Guide would replace these works. Having examined it, I believe that it is more of a gap-filler and will help bring the western collector up to speed with his Oriental counterpart. It is not the ultimate Chinese cash catalog for the western collector. It will not replace Fisher's Ding, though the two books complement each other nicely and together make an excellent basic reference, rendering Schjoth largely obsolete. Jen's work alone is a fair choice for someone who is not collecting the series and wants just one reference, but anyone acquiring coins should have Ding and/or Schjoth as well. In a nutshell, this is a non-comprehensive type catalog with fairly good rubbing illustrations, a number system, transliterated legends and attributions by emperor, cross-reference to S and FD numbers, market prices in two grades and, incorporated into the catalog portion, the sort of historical information contained in Schjoth, but of greater depth and recency. There is an extensive listing of pre-production and pattern coins, special sections on calligraphy varieties and counterfeits, and a dynastic list. Some Central Asian series are represented. Pinyin is used throughout. Uniquely, this work explains the importance many types have to the Oriental collector, a perspective richer than that gained from any western work. My biggest problem with Jen is its lack of comprehensiveness. The author has tried " . . . not to encumber this book with material that can be found in other catalogs prepared carefully by western writers . . ." but the result has been to omit many commonly-found types that appear in both Schjoth and the amazingly comprehensive Ding. The catalog numbers tell the story. Fisher's Ding covers the field in 2708 entries; Jen in 1491, including numerous charms, and some exotic types Ding missed. For knives and spades, Ding has 341 entries, Jen only 57, but including 5 missed by Ding. This means that many of the city-named late spades are simply missing, and the highly varied Ming knife is essentially served by a single entry. The complex coinage of Shun Zhih, enlivened by the transition from Ming to Manchu rule, has been deeply studied by Werner Burger. Leaving aside calligraphy differences, 76 types emerge from his plates, of which Ding lists 71 and Schjoth 57; Jen only 42. Certainly it is hard to fault any work in this complex and under-researched field for omissions, but here the omissions seem completely arbitrary. Missing are many types commonly available for under $50, while extreme rarities, priced in the thousands of dollars, are found on nearly every page. The generous margins and loose layout of the plates give the work a comfortable look, but I can't help feeling that 341 full-sized pages could have been used to cover the field more thoroughly. In an attempt "to avoid a cluttering of material" Jen has divided his main catalog into two parts, what he calls mainstream issues, and "variants." Apparently the idea was to provide one or more pieces of each reign title in Section I to ease the task of the page-through attributer. I have been unable to discern any criteria, however, for what was put in each section, nor indeed to what was left out of both. An atrtribution guide such as R.B. White's, requiring perhaps 10 pages, would eliminate the need for page-throughs and be helpful to the casual user as well. Aside from the inconvenience of flipping back and forth between two sections is the numbering problem. The number sequence runs historically from #1 through #868, with Taiping and other Rebel coins, Xinjiang (Turkestan) and other outlying series adding up to #928, which is sensible enough. Then Section II begins all over again with knife and spade "variants" from #929 to #1491, forcing the user to interpose the two number runs to keep his listing or collection in historical order. This alone will dissuade many collectors from using Jen's numbers as their organizing thread, and most dealers and auctioneers from referencing the work in their listings. There is a fascinating section on calligraphy varieties. Jen attempts a breakdown of the Wu Zhu (Han) and Kai Yuan (Tang) types, which, along with the earlier Ban Liang, are conservative series just now yielding their secrets to a few dedicated researchers using published hoard finds. Most western collectors, however, will find these pages more tantalizing than useful. In simplified form, Jen recounts the fascinating evolution of these types with rubbings and calligraphy descriptions as aids. Roger Doo is gradually publishing much more detailed studies, some i

3 comments about Numismatic Forgery.

1. Gone are the days of thoughtless coin purchases, and carefree days of yore. Today, the average Joe Numismatist faces a staggering array of crooks out to bilk him of his hard earned cash, by selling recently manufactured numismatic forgeries. Mr. Larson write very intelligently, with wit and humor! I found this book to be not only fun to read, but as much of a page turner as any I have ever read! Bravo sir! I will buy you a cup of coffee should you venture into my neck of the woods. I will guarantee any prospective reader that his book will inform, educate, enlighten and scare the pants off you. You will never look at a rare coin the same way again. Rated 8 stars.



2. Covers: Alteration (tooling, adding mint marks); Casting (centrifugal); False Dies (engraving tools, from electroplates, from casts, explosive impact); Collars; Planchets; Striking (hammering jigs and the 'gravity hammer'); and Wear/Patina.

   Although written in the style of a "how-to" manual for replica and clandestine workshops, the book's target audience is collectors and authenticators. To employ Mr. Larson's techniques for crime you'd need to know the basics of precious metal casting, tool and die machining, gunsmithing, and numismatics. For readers without a metal lathe but with a serious interest in authentication and forgery-fighting, the book will provide an understanding of the covert minting process.

   I was most impressed by Larson's treatment of the manufacture of steel dies through explosive impact copying. His procedure involves modifying shotguns to drive cast hubs into annealed dies. Larson's diagrams are explicit enough to convince the numismatist that explosive copying is practical. Details only of use to criminals, such as the type and quantity of gunpowder to use, are deliberately withheld from the reader.

   Larson quotes an anonymous authenticator who examined 114 1916-S quarter eagles during the 1980s. 56% of them turned out to be fake! Hi-volume forgers in the Middle East and the Orient *already know* many of Larson's techniques. _Numismatic Forgery_ may provide a few useful tips to jewelers and machinists independently turning to crime, but the primary value of the book is to educate collectors in the characteristics of the illicit workshop.




3. A must read for anyone who buys coins: dealer or collector.
   Very insightful and a much needed tool for the industry. There has been nothing quite like this. Nice back cover short reviews by Jim Halperin, Ken Bressett and Mark Salzberg. This book is major league.

3 comments about U.S. Coin Digest 2008: The Complete Guide to Current Market Values.

1. Got this to update my husbands old coin book as he buys and sells. He says it's great



2. This is an excellent guide however not as well organized as R.S. Yeoman's the official Red Book a guide book of United States coins, otherwise the pictures, illustrations and description are superb.



3. It was everything that I was looking for and received it in a few days. I am very happy with the whole process.

No comments about Numismatic Art in America: Aesthetics of the United States Coinage.

1 comments about The Spanish Treasure Fleets.

1. It is indeed! It is a book about the unbelievable efforts made to transport gold and silver from New Spain and Peru to Spain between the 15th and 18th century, how these precious metals initiated worldwide commerce, about the rise and fall of the Spanish/ Habsburg empire and how it helped European countries to become economic and political world powers. Waltons book moves through three centuries of world history in an appropriate pace, without leaving out interesting details. It simply is a fascinating book!