The Red Book: Required Reading for Coin Collectors
Written: Dec 07 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well organized; comprehensive; many photographs
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended reading for all coin collectors, especially beginners, for its comprehensive coverage of U.S. coins.
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| dhartlaub's Full Review: A Guide Book of United States Coins 2003: The Offi... |
The "Red Book" by R.S. Yeoman is the standard coin reference guide for United States coin collectors. It is the first of two coin books that I recommend to a beginning coin collector before he/she buys that first coin (the other is the ANA Grading Standards). The Red Book answers just about all of the basic questions that a beginning or intermediate coin collector would have.
The 2003 Red Book is divided up into the following sections:
1) Introduction - Provides a discussion of coin price trends, coin grading, coins as an investment and a history of coins in the U.S.
2) Coin Pricing Guide - Provides prices for just about every coin that has circulated in the U.S. since the 1600's, including some foreign coins that circulated here, state-issued coins, early tokens and regular U.S. Mint-issued coins. Also included in the pricing guide are U.S. sets and commemoratives, private and territorial gold coins, private gold bars, civil war tokens, Confederate and Hawaiian coins and tokens, and coins struck by the U.S. for the Philippines (plus much more).
3) Misstruck Coins and Errors - Provides a brief description of some of the most common and/or popular error coins along with some estimated prices for various types of errors.
4) Bullion Coins - Provides a bullion price chart and a listing of modern U.S. silver, gold and platinum coins.
5) Index - Don't know where something is in this 350 page book? You can look it up in the index.
As you can see, the Red Book is just not a coin pricing guide. As an example, each section on a particular type of coin contains a brief discussion of the history of the coin series, the name of the designer, coin composition information, dates minted, a brief grading guide, mintage figures for each date, locations of the mintmarks, prices for multiple grades and photographs of most varieties within the coin series. Can't figure out the difference between a 1981-S Type 1 Anthony Dollar (worth $8.50) and a 1981-S Type 2 Anthony Dollar (worth $180.00)? Take a look at the photographs of the 2 types on page 193 and you will be able to determine if your coin is the common variety or the expensive variety.
I would recommend the spiral bound Red Book for those looking to buy this book. The hardcover book certainly is nice and will last longer, but the spiral bound book stays open to the page that you want so that you don't have to hold a coin in one hand and keep the book open with the other. Also, since the Red Book is updated every year, there won't be much chance of your spiral bound book wearing out unless you visit coin shows, coin dealers and eBay on a daily basis.
The one disadvantage of this book is similar to that of other price books. Sometimes prices change even before the book is published. Therefore, the prices in the book should only be a guideline. If you are visiting with a dealer, ask to see his latest copy of the Coin Dealer Newsletter for a better idea of the latest prices on coins. The "Greysheet" (Coin Dealer Newsletter) updates coin prices on a weekly basis based on dealer to dealer coin transactions.
The bottom line here is that if you collect coins, this is a must-read book. If you are thinking about collecting coins, this should be the first book that you buy before you buy that first coin.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dhartlaub
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Member: Don Hartlaub
Location: Black Forest, CO
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 1 member
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