Product Description

This hardcover book is a comprehensive insider's look at not only rare coins, but also tokens, medals, and paper money. At 34 chapters and nearly 700 pages, it covers everything from grading to determining values to techniques of smart auction bidding. More than 1,300 photographs and illustrations, both black and white and in full-color galleries, complement the text, showing the people, places, and coins described. Bowers' engaging case studies, strategies, and insider tips make the book an invaluable "how to" for today's marketplace. Chapters are devoted to copper, nickel, silver, and gold coins; dynamics of the coin market; fads, trends, cycles, and predictions; conserving and protecting your collection; how to be a smart seller; and more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35974 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 655 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780794821784
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

A must have book for both the collector and investor!
I read "Gold Rush: How to Collect, Invest & Profit With Gold Coins" by Mitch Battino and Arlyn Sieber (see my review of that book) prior to reading this book by Q. David Bowers. I'm glad I did because while the Gold Rush book was a very big disappointment, it made me realize just how truly good Mr. Bowers book is.

I have to be honest, coin books are generally NOT books that you read from beginning to end and find that you can't put down. This book is an exception - I couldn't put it down and I read the entire book from beginning to end.

Although I've been collecting for years, one thing I enjoyed about this book was that some of those obscure numismatic terms that other authors assume you know, Mr. Bowers will stop and take a sentence or two to explain the term. I really appreciated that.

Plus, where the Gold Rush book failed in the "How to Collect, Invest, and Profit," this book did an excellent job of showing how to do just that. It is not a price guide with outdated prices. It is an excellent reference guide with information that will never get old. This book will still be great 10 years from now.

This book has excellent chapters with hands-on advise and great stories to help explain coin market cycles, determining coin prices and value (not a list of coin prices like other books but goes into things like grading, rarity, and demand), history of the coin market and predicting the rare coin market, techniques for buying and selling, and chapters on collecting advise for everything from gold coins, commemorative coins, to paper money and tokens and medals. The only thing I would point out as that this book sticks to the U.S. rare coin market and does not discuss World coins.

I own more than a few coin books and this book has shot up to the top of my list as the "must have" book. Whether you are a new or experienced collector or investor (aren't we all really both), you will enjoy and profit from this book.

In the future, when I'm asked by new collectors what is a good book to get, this will be the book I recommend.

The best "general information" coin book
This is the best "general information" book about US coins I have ever read. As usual with Mr. Bowers`s books, it is well written, higly readable and full of useful information. It is not to replace a handfull of notable numismatics books (Green's encyclopaedia, Ruddy's Photograde, etc.)- it shows you what American numismatics is like - and you are ready to consult and read the classics. Truly a wonderful book, much more than tells the title.

Great Book
This is a must have book for all coin collectors. It discusses the difference between investors and collectors and how one can become the best of both worlds, a COLLECTOR/investor. A wise collector can result in one becoming an investor as an after thought. The book is loaded with coin-related information that is too much to mention here but all valuable. The book has the history of the US instilled as part of the coin information. This is a book hard to put down. I have read many "coin-related" books but seldom find one interesting and informative enought (at least for me, to see my way thru from cover to cover. This book is a rare exception. BUY!