No comments about Indian Cents 1856-1909, Album.

4 comments about A Guide Book of United States Coins 2004: 57th Edition.

1. The "Bluebook" is a better choice of coin collectors. The redbook is a RETAIL price guide, intended for dealers. I also noted the population data for state quarter proofs is significantly incorrect. The book's data only accounts for proof quarters sold in 5 piece sets. There were millions more made each year included in the 10 piece sets. Compare the numbers on pages 70 and 152.



2. Sorry LeadPedal2, but you are wrong, and I hope not too many people have been driven away from this wonderfully written, helpful, and complete book by your false statements.

   This book DOES contain information on Proof and Uncirculated sets sold by the U.S. Mint, on pages 68-71.

   Also, to the previous reviewer - I don't know what problem you see with the color pictures, perhaps your edition was misprinted. The full-color pictures in my edition are beautiful, clear, and very helpful.

   I've been collecting both the Red and Blue books since 1993 as a nice compliment to my coin collection, and this edition maintains Yeoman and Whitman's high standards. I am very happy with this book, and highly recommend it to other coin collectors, beginners through those with much experience.




3. This book is good for what it includes, but there is a glaring and shocking omission! There is no info on proof sets, only on some individual coins. With the introduction of state quarter sets, annual proof sets have become a hot commodity, yet this book completely overlooks the entire category!



4. This 2004 edition of a standard reference disappoints; if you can get it, I recommend the 2003 edition for now, especially if it's your first coin book purchase. While there are some ongoing improvements (more commemorative coin images), there are two major strikes against this edition: 1) A bunch of new color images have been added throughout - and they're horrible. 2) Whitman has filled some of the blank space with ads, increasing the number of ads for Whitman products five-fold, usually popping up between denominations.
   The new images are failures because they are digital images that were incorrectly prepared for press. The artifacting in the images is so bad, for example, that the 1858 flying eagle cent large/small letter variety isn't clear to the novice eye. Many of the large cent date varieties look terrible, and in some pictures you can't even discern what the difference is supposed to be. The editor has provided a reference book that fails as a reference - no small feat.
   As for the ads, Whitman certainly has the right, but the vivid colors just feel distasteful; I don't mind them at the back, where they're a handy reference, but our lives are stuffed with enough commercial filler - can't I avoid it while looking up my coins?
   A couple of new varieties are added, expanding beyond the addition of recent Lincoln varieties in 2002. The state quarters section has been attractively improved, and images now exist for all quarters designs to date. Interestingly, the hard times tokens at the rear are eliminated, and a section on pattern pieces added instead. I always find patterns fascinating examples of 'what could have been', so I laud this addition, as it lends the starting hobbyist a little peek into an area I find more exciting than tokens. That's a subjective viewpoint though, and the only reason I gave the book a 2 instead of a 1. I'm saddened that it falls so far short of where the 2003 edition came to.

4 comments about Guide Book of United States Coins 2005: The Official Redbook (Guide Book of United States Coins (Spiral)).

1. it really is the best "little" book for anyone interested in collecting coins or watching the value of owned coins go up. very reliable prices.



2. The Redbook is a great reference for coin collecting. It has color pictures of almost every coin. It also illustrates die varities and other rare errors like double dies. The pictures are enlarged so you can see if your coins have a feature that makes them much more valuable. It tells you the mintage for each coin. Also, with each coin series there is a short history about the coin series. Included is a section about error coins.
   
   The one bad thing is the pricing. It really is not much inline. If you want this book just for pricing I would not reccommend it. However, if you want it as a reference, I would highly reccommend it. Some prices are too high, and others too low. So if you want a good coin reference book, this is one of the best out there!



3. The Redbook is the US coin collector's bible. Every collector MUST have this book if they are collecting US coins. The Redbook lists every coin ever minted in the United States. It also tells you which mints have produced them (there have been many over the years) and how many where made at each mint. This is valuable information because the value of any given US coin will depend on its date, mint mark & condition.
   
   The prices in the Redbook are representative of the full retail price of a coin. The vast majority of the coins listed can be had for considerably less though from any reputable dealer. In most cases, if a dealer tries to get the Redbook price for a coin, run, do not walk, to the nearest exit.
   
   Try searching on Google for a "reputable coin dealer" (include quotes) to locate a reputable coin dealer in your area. Every coin dealers advertises the quality, value and convenience of shopping with them but how many advertise their integrity? Try googling for "integrity, quality, value & convenience" (include quotes) and just see how many coin dealers are willing to ride on their reputation!
   
   If you are looking to sell some coins, do NOT base the price you want for them on what is shown in the Redbook. The price a dealer will offer you for you coins will be a dealer-to-dealer price (i.e. a wholesale price). You certainly don't want to be one of those naive collectors who walk into a coin shop and try to sell your coins for anywhere near the price shown in the Redbook. Most dealers would simply laugh at you and move on to the next customer (as rude as that be).
   
   Again, if you are thinking about collecting coins, the Redbook had better be the first book you buy.



4. I became fascinated with coins as a youth a zillion years ago. I worked on the Lincoln cents series, memorizing the valuable dates and prices before finally completing the entire set. Since that time I have returned to coins again and again, drawn by their allure on many levels. They serve as cultural icons - an encapsulated national history lesson. They are also beautiful works of art...one cannot help but be reminded of the great sculptor Augustus Saint-Gauden who designed, according to President Teddy Roosevelt, the "most beautiful coin ever minted" - the famous and breathtaking St. Gauden's $20 gold coin. Last, but certainly not least, coins serve as an anchor in bad economic times and as excellent (the best) investments. Even in this age of technology, savvy investors know that gold and silver are "for the ages".
   
   Throughout it all the Redbook has been a faithful companion. It succeeds where others do not for several reasons - each edition builds on prior works, research is ongoing, latest findings are presetn but most important, it remains THE repository for fair pricing. I note that it still contains the reminder, "Well-struck, uncirculated pieces demand higher prices than shown". Some things never change.
   
   The listings are accompanied by numerous photographs including a multitude of "close-ups". The warnings are also present - Be aware of washed coins or altered dates or forgeries. But it is the grading system that forms the core of the book. Despite the non-stop battles over grading methodolgy (I prefer the 70 point system since it seems the most objective) many experts still refer to the Redbook and its language concerning feathers, stars, "LIBERTY" and hair details. As long as there are silver and gold coins there will be a Redbook.

No comments about Armenian Coins and Their Values (Crop Protection Publications).

No comments about After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam (Proceedings of the British Academy).

1 comments about The Official U.S. Mint Dime Coin Album.

1. Kids could not get the coins in the pages. When they did, then they could not get them back. These books are for collectors and not kids. For kids, we went and got the 'states' map book.

No comments about Guide Book of United States Coins (Guide Book of U.S. Coins: The Official Redbook).

1 comments about The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins.

1. Alexander the Great has been a constant theme in art and history; there has been a recent big-budget movie by Oliver Stone, and there are always new, sometimes revisionist, biographies coming out. The historic figure was remarkable enough with conquests that no one has ever matched. The legendary Alexander was coming into being even in the real Alexander's lifetime, and afterward his image was borrowed to define or proclaim political power. He was frequently depicted upon ancient coins, and in _The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins_ (Routledge), Karsten Dahmen has reviewed the coins produced from about 320 BCE to 400 CE which carry images of Alexander. This is a remarkably full review of a very specific sphere of numismatics. Dahmen is a classical archeologist and a numismatist in the Berlin Coin Cabinet, and his book offers insight not only into coinage of the time, but also into the esteem in which Alexander was held and how his image was employed by rulers and cities all over the lands he had conquered. Each coin mentioned here is illustrated by photograph, and the history described will make the volume interesting to more readers than just those interested in ancient coins.
   
   Alexander died in 323 BCE, so that the coins here are almost all tributes to Alexander after his death. The coins here of the Hellenistic age were struck not only by the absolute monarchs of the different lands, but also by cities whose coins would be used in only a limited region. It was Ptolemy in Egypt (ruling 322 - 283 BCE) that first borrowed some of Alexander's glory by putting him on coins, and he made the most elaborate use in this way of any of Alexander's lieutenants. Ptolemy had continued the Alexander cult principally by hijacking the dead king's body for eventual burial in Alexandria itself a few years after his death. One of the images he used of Alexander recalled the image of Heracles with a lion scalp, but shows Alexander wearing instead an even more improbable scalp of an elephant, complete with tusks and trunk. Ptolemy recalled Heracles, but the chapeau was specifically from Alexander's history. Alexander had defeated King Poros and conquered the war-elephants of India in 326 BCE. This portrait also has another animal part, one that is in many of Alexander's pictures here. Above Alexander's ear is a ram's horn, reminding the coin's possessor that Alexander had been a welcomed liberator in Egypt, where the priests had pronounced him the son of Zeus Ammon, whose symbol was the ram's horn. Thus Ptolemy was drawing on a local part of Alexander's legend as well as his divinity. Significantly, gold coins were issued with this sort of image at the beginning of Ptolemy's reign; Ptolemy was eventually fully appointed king himself, and his own image took Alexander's place, with Alexander moving on to bronze coins, as if to indicate Ptolemy's increasing self-confidence. When Seleukos I of Syria used Alexander's image, he included the elephant scalp but left out the ram's horn since he had no need to draw upon an Egyptian connotation. Just as kings found Alexander's image useful, so did cities, especially those that Alexander had founded or to which his name had been given. A coin from Smyrna in Ionia shows Alexander on the reverse snoozing under a plane-tree. This is a reference to the legendary founding of Smyrna; Alexander after a hunt took a nap under the tree near the Sanctuary of the Nemeses, and the Nemeses came to him in his dream and bade him to found the city there.
   
   Not all the coins shown here go back to the ancient world. There is a 1990 hundred-drachma coin from Greece with Alexander's head (with ram's horn) that would have been easily recognized two thousand years ago. It is interesting to know, too, that the Alexander coinage promoted Renaissance scholars to investigate portraits of the conqueror on coins. The renewed interest in classical history and in Alexander's legends thus were a driving force in making the academic field of numismatics. And Alexander continued to be borrowed for power plays even in the sixteenth century. The engraver Alessandro Cesati, in honor of Pope Paul III, made bronze medallions to commemorate the encounter of Alexander with the Jewish High Priest when he visited Jerusalem. It shows Alexander in armor bowing down "as every king should do" to the religious authority. It never happened; the depicted meeting is entirely fiction, a story dreamed up to please the hearers, and in this case the pope. One of the chapters in Dahmen's strongly academic yet non-fusty book, is "Making Good Use of a Legend", and his whole book shows comprehensively that this is what happened to Alexander on coins, repeatedly through the centuries.

No comments about Standard catalog of Mexican coins, paper money, stocks, bonds, and medals =: El catalogo de moneda de Mexico, papel moneda, acciones, bonos y medallas.

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