This was waiting for me when I got home.

I got a surprise in today's mail...

Encyclopedia of United States silver & gold commemorative coins 1892-1954

Ooh thank you so much and for the photo books too! You are awesome!

The current CNG auction has a LOT of great book lots.

I won this item from eBay today!

Coins of LIVONIAN Order XIII-XVI ct. by Gunnar Haljak, Tallinn 1997

"Hal" is the catalog of coins minted in Arensburg, Dorpat, Hapsal, Reval, Riga and Wenden by Bishops, Free Cities and Danish Kingdom from 1219 to 1569. 104 pages. The catalog printed on German and Estonian languages. Print drawing is only 300 copies! Hard cover.

I just found that Bidpay was not yet in operation! The seller from Estonia even do not accept Paypal. It requires declare form for mail to Estonia, in other words, I can not drop the letter into collection box directly. But there are too many people in the post office at all time

I've picked up a few token books in the last few weeks, Latin American Tokens by Russell Rulau, Tokens of Mexico by Frank Grove, and a signed and numbered copy of A Guide to Colorado Merchant Trade Tokens by Stuart Pritchard. Standard fair to expand my library in support of my aluminum collection (and just because I like numismatic books).

But the best find was Thai Coins by Mark Graham and Manfred Winkler, 1992, Finance One Limited, Bangkok, Thailand. It is a beautifully illustrated survey of the history of Thai coins published in Thai and English. The coins and various monetary forms used through time are all illustrated with the best examples from private collections, many of them extremely rare and not commonly encountered by Western collectors. Although I do not collect Thai coins, I could not pass this beautiful volume that I encountered in our local used bookstore.

My latest purchase arrived today. From the seller's description:

Heiss, Aloïs. Description générale des monnaies antiques de l'Espagne. Paris, L'Imprimerie Nationale, 1870. 548 pp., 68 ppl. of line drawings. Quarterbound cloth with marbled boards. Fine, spine a bit faded. No to very minimal foxing.

An early standard work on Celtiberian and Romano-Spanish coinages, still often cited. Employs thick paper with large margins and specially designed Iberian/Phoenician fonts, includes valuations in Francs, and the line drawings are nothing less than superb.

It was described as massive (9.5" by 12.5", 3" thick), about 10 pounds. The paper feels wonderful and the type has an amazing raised texture. The custom fonts are nothing short of superb and the illustrations are spectacular. I never seize to be amazed by the quality of the line drawings from the 1800s.

An added bonus, not in the dealer's description, is the bookplate of the eminent numismatist, Doct. Pierre Bastien. A note in E-sylum describes the bookplate as: appropriately, in the form of a coin, the obverse bearing the image of a woman (Cleopatra?) feeding a snake, the reverse with comic and tragic masks, a scroll and a pen upon a manuscript. Bastien wrote French catalogs of the Roman coins of Lugdunum (among other books). While I do not yet own any of his books (they are on my library want list), I now own a spectacular book from his personal library. I love these personal ties to the numismatic community.

Nice purchases Bill.

Roger Burdette's Renaissance of American Coinage: 1905-1908 arrived today, the second of three planned volumes. The third volume appeared first, this is the first volume published second, the second volume comes next year. 1905 to 1908 covers the Augustus Saint-Gaudens designs and a briefer discussion of the Pratt designs. Burdette's work is fresh and provides new insights to our coinage and the politics behind their design and production.

Like you, I am always impressed by the workmanship evidenced in these old books. Even newspapers of the time required armies of skilled laborers whose efforts are missed today. I think of compositors, proofreaders, copyboys, editors... and they turned out several editions each day, continuously updating the paper.

With books, we think nothing today of illustrations, and photoengraving certainly made a difference. But before that, they still illiustrated books, cutting plates by hand. (Paul Revere's engraving publicized the Boston Massacre the next day. You can't get a snapshot of the company picnic through Photoshop in that time. Of course, Paul Revere did not need a departmental kick-off meeting to start a project.)

My latest purchases:
Fischer's Ding and Schjo"th, both from Frank Robinson.

I just picked up some old books myself. Original editions of Roman Imperial Coins Vol.I and Vol.II as well as History of Jewish coins, printed in Leipzig in 1862. To round out my lof there's a more modern book, Grierson's Coins of Medieval Europe. I got this from the ANA library and had trouble shippig it back. For $80 it's an awesome book about that time period.

Went on a brief buying spree the past couple of weeks and everything (almost) arrived yesterday.

Breen's Encyclopedia was the most routine. Didn't have it, do now.

The others are more interesting.

From George Kolbe:

Antiquarian Books on Coins and Medals from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century, by Ferdinando Bassoli (2001)

Ancient Numismatics and Its History Including a Critical Review of the Literature, by Ernest Babelon (2004)

These are the first two books in his Studies in the History of Numismatic Literature series. As I have acquired older volumes for my specialized collecting topis, I've become more interested in the older books. These are two studies to help refine my library.

The third Kolbe purchase is:

Illustrium Imagines Incorporating an English Translation of Nota by Roberto Weiss (2001)

Illustrium Imagines was the first illustrated numismatic book by Andrea Fulvio published in 1517. Kolbe purchased an unbound and incomplete copy of this rare, early volume. He used the occasion to create a limited edition, fine press book limited to 151 copies and 17 leather bound special edition copies. Mine is number 136 of the 151. Each copie includes a leaf from the original Illustrium Imagines featuring an illustration of Constantinus III with brief bio and Eraclius.

The pages look like:



I also have John Cunnally's Illustrious Images on the way. It is an introduction and a guide to the numismatic scholarship of the Renaissance--the coin collections and illustrated coin-books produced by humanists and artists of the sixteenth century.

The last book is Les Jetons de L'Échevinage Parisien, by A. D'Affry de la Monnoye (1878, Paris).

I got these off ebay. Sadly, I missed the Vol 1 of North by a few minutes

But I did get Vol 2!

These came today, thanks in large part to help from T_3:

Money through the Centuries and Money of the Kingdom. I've already found answers to some questions, and that's while reading with a Dutch-English dictionary clutched in one hand.

Every year I order 10 to 15 Red Books for Christmas presents. I usually get the cheapest version though for others. I use a ringed edition for the basement and same for my computer room. I have all Red Book Editions from 8 to present in Hard Cover and never opened in my library.

I recived my signed edition of “The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain” by Michael Freeman November 2006 reprint.
This is a great reference book that covers all the British bronze type coins from 1860 - 1970. Pennies, halfpennies and farthings. It covers varieties of the currency issues as well as every type of pattern, proof and trial strikings of each denomination.

A Finnish language book, loosely translated as "Researches, Collectors and Donors: Finnish Numismatists 1700-1917" by Tuukka Talvio. An interesting book dealing with the more significant and influential numismatists. Part biographical, it also deals with their collections, coins, and where some of those have been donated. The cover has a great portrait of one of the numismatists, Antell, painted by the Finnish painter Gallen-Kallela.

Last 3 books I have bought:

LA MONNAIE ET LE PORTRAIT ROYAL: Brussels 1991. Issued by National Bank of Belgium. Book about painters and sculptors who have designed royal portraits on coins and banknotes of Belgium. Some interesting facts, but not very useful for numismatists. But I believe it's worth E 5.- I've paid for it. Available in French and Flamish.

О ЧЕМ РАССКАЗЫВАЮТ МОНЕТЫ: Minsk 1977. Despite on infantil title of the book ("What are coins telling?"), the book is perfect! It contains all the history of money in the territory of Belarus avoiding just coinage of Poland 1923-39. Probably all best numismatic books I have read are in Russian but catalogs. This is the area they have to work yet!
Book has been bought at local antiquity shop for Ls 0.15 (US$ 0.27).

MONEDAS Y BILLETES ESPAÑOLES 1833-2004 Y DE LA UNION EUROPEA: Barcelona 2005. Catalog type book, probably one of the best national catalogs I have seen. Since it was out of date (there's edition 2006 available) I've got it for E 5.-

I've been exploring two themes recently:

First the early days of collecting and the role of coins in illustrating history. Two books to explore the topic "hands on."

Series Augustorum, Augustorum, Caesarum, Et Tyrannorum Omnium, Tam in Oriente, Quam in Occidente, A C.J. Caesare by Laurentius Patarol, published in 1722 in Venice. Roman coin obverses are used to illustrate the emporers.

La Science des Medailles, Nouvelle Edition, Avec Des Remarques Historiques & Critiques, Tome Premier by Louis Jobert, published in 1739 in Paris (Fourth edition). The opening illustration of two collectors before their coin cabinet:



Second are early American medals (US and Canada):

American colonial history illustrated by contemporary medals by C. Wyllys Betts, published by Scott Stamp and Coin Company, New York, 1894.

Illustrated History of the Coins and Tokens of Canada by P.N. Breton, printed by the British North American Banknote Company (1894)

The Medallic Work of John Adams Bolen by Neil E. Musante, Springfield, Mass (2002)

KLEINER DEUTSCHER MUENZKATALOG von 1871 bis heute. G.Schoen/G Schoen : Munich 2006. (Smaller German catalog of coins from 1871 till now) Exactly so! Not "coins of Germany" but "German coins". It means this book also contains coins of Austria (but not the coins of Hungarian part af Austrohungaria), Liechtenstein, Danzig and Switzerland.
This catalog is much harder to use comparing to KM because coins are presented in chronological order. Some coins have prices just for one grade. On the other hand prices are more correct (where's KM weak point). Varieties mostly are shown not just mentioned. Price: EUR 12.80

This aquisition just made me drool and feel frustrated that I'm not a millionaire

In this case "kleiner" simply means "small". The term is a little misleading since even this small catalog has almost 600 pages As for the order in which the coins appear, well, the Jaeger (the "Bible" for post-1871 German coins) does the same thing. Makes it easier to see which coins are part of a certain series - but sure, if you want to look a piece up, the order by denomination makes more sense.

Fortunately the Schön catalogs have the Jaeger numbers (for German coins) and the KM numbers (for other coins) too. What is also nice, by the way, is that Gerhard Schön is an active member of some German coin forums.

Christian

I've picked up a couple recently ...

"Early Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794 - 1836", Third Edition, First Printing by Al Overton. It's the "bible" for U.S. Bust Half Dollar variety collectors. Thanks Jorg !!! I hope to get started on some coin acquisitions soon.

... and ...

"Early American Coppers Anthology" - an anthology of "the finest research in the field of United States Large Cents and Half Cents" - 1977 Edition (only 1000 copies made) - It contains published works by such early copper greats as Crosby, Frossard, Gilbert and Newcomb.

COLLECTORS COIN GB 2007

I am proud to own the "Deutscher Muenzkatalog 18. Jahrhundert" 1984 by Gerhard Schoen with autograph (not for me ), found on an old book store in Munchen

Hey, that is neat! Good find.

Christian

Just bought this little book, thought I would share. Very informative, a history and how its done regarding minting coins by Shire



Coins and Minting: Shire Album No. 106
Cooper, Denis

What's the time frame on the history?

Ancient to modern and in between...although it is a small little book, it packs a lot of info in it and covers many of the different historical methods, from hammering to modern presses and many in between as well as photos, diagrams of different old style presses and how mints were set up at different times in history. Nice little book. I had hoped it would be more of a 'how to' to do it yourself minting but I am not at all disappointed that it turned out to be a history of minting through the ages....even my wife who isnt into coins at all started reading it and enjoyed it and was impressed at how much info was packed into such a small book and loved the old illustations, photos and diagrams.

Jetons, Medalets & Tokens, The Low Countries and France by Mitchiner. I lowballed this on eBay and won it. Now I need to ante up and get Volumes 1 & 3,

For Russian medals lovers I'd highly recommend 5 volumes by Mr Diakov. It has become a real classic reference . I believe he's now finishing up volume #6. The reference beautifully printed and easy to navigate through . Both in English and Russian (English translation is somewhat sloppy in some cases).

The Oldman.

I just picked up my first coin book. The Official Blackbook Price Guide to World Coins, 2007......


Just got home from picking it up..... now to start looking through it.....

My latest purchase is Jurg Richter's book: "Die Schützentaler und Schützenmedaillen der Schweiz"

This is the new "Bible" of Swiss Shooting Medals and replaces the 1971 Jean Martin catalog/book.

It is the definitive book of Swiss Schützenfest Medals.

L Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists (9 vols., 1904-1930, reprinted 1987)
G Kienast, Goetz II: A Supplement to The Medals of Karl Goetz, Volume II

I have four other copies of the Kienast book but they are tough to get a hold of so I grab them when I can.

Both lots were won at the recent Charles Davis auction.

What do you do with the extra copies?

Magic, Myth, and Money: The Origin of Money in Religious Ritual. by William Desmonde (Free Press of Glencoe, New York, 1962)

An odd little book involving a Jungian analysis of the origion of money in religious symbolism. (Don't ask why, it had to do with my interests in symbolism and Celtic coins.)

Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain. by John Creighton (Cambridge University Press, 2000)

I think he (and others) stretch the evidence with entoptic analysis, but there is plenty else to interest me.

Celtic Coinage: New Discoveries, New Discussion. Edited by Philip de Jersey. (BAR International Series 1532, Oxford, 2006)

Interesting collection of papers, my main interest is in several studies of Roman influences on Celtic coins.

I just got the 2007 Red Book. it's spiral bound and looks like it will last as long as I need it.

Interesting fact, when silver bullion is $13.99 per ounce any pre 1964 American silver coin is worth 10X it's face value, just for melt. Every 1964 Roosevelt dime is worth a Buck.

GEMSTOCKS

I'm currently holding on to them but will probably sell them in Germany. They are very rare over there and sell for $300+ per copy.

I also have both volumes of Kienast's working copies...a spendy set to say the least. I felt that since I have ownership of the copyrights for both books then I should own his working copies too. Both volumes will be "refurbished", combined, and integrated into my website where everyone can read them and view the medal descriptions with high-res images.

Not coins but notes. Picked this up at the non-profit used book store for $1...



I don't collect notes and know very little about them, but this is loaded with some nice pictures and info.

One day I would like to get this note as a complement to the Bison coins.


I don't imagine I could get these 1979 prices though...*sigh*

I haven't exactly kept up to date, but I did acquire Michael Mitchiner's Jeton's, Medalets & Tokens, Volume 2 The Low Countries and France.

Francis Paul Prucha's Indian Peace Medals in American History

but the most interesting came by accident today as I scanned a used bookstore that was new to me.

Matthew Boulton by H.W. Dickinson, Cambridge, 1937. It is a science biography, history volume with a chapter on Coinage and the Soho Mint. An appendix includes a Memoir of Boulton by James Watt written in 1809. Some foxing, but it looks like a decent biography.

The bronze coinage of Great Britain by michael freeman.

A few new acquisitions.

For my French collctions:

Historie du Roy Louis le Grand par les Medailles by Claude-François Menestrier (Chez I.B. Nolin, Paris, 1693)

For my numismatic history (and David Bowers) collection:

Virgil Brand: The Man and His Era, Profile of a Numismatist (Bowers and Merena, 1983, Hardbound, signed)

Abe Kosoff: Dean of Numismatics (Bowers and Merena, 1985, Hardbound, signed and numbered)

An Inside View of the Coin Hobby in the 1930s: The Walter P. Nichols File (Bowers and Merena, 1984, Softbound)

The Norweb Collection: An American Legacy (by Michael Hodder and Bowers, Bowers and Merena, 1987, Hardbound, signed, numbered).

and finally, for my general library:

The Early Paper Money of America by Eric P. Newman (3rd Edition, Krause Publications, 1990)

I recently picked up Penny Whimsy...Finally.

I found a copy of Nederlandse Munten 1795-1975 by Jacques Schulman here in the U.S. It gives more details about varieties than Krause does. Now I need to reexamine all the edge lettering on a bunch of coins.

My latest purchases are as follows

Roman Silver Coins - A Price Guide
by Richard Plant

Collectors Bank Notes 2006
(Treasury and Bank of England)
by Chris Perkins

British Armed Forces
Special Vouchers
by TEA Van Elmpt

The trouble I had finding the last book LOL

* Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman coins -- by Whitman

* The official Red book Aguide Book of Flying Eagle and Indian Head Cents
By Rick Snow- Autographed

*The flying Eagle and Indian cent Attribution guide Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 6
in the Binder By Rick Snow- All three Autographed

*Looking Through Lincoln cents by Charles Daughtry - Hope fully will be Autographed

also * High Profits from Rare coin investment by Q. David Bowers

* The Collectors HAndbook

* the PCGS numbering System 16th Edition

* The PCGS Population report july 2005

Comitia Americana and Related Medals: Under Appreciated Monuments to Our Heritage

by John W. Adams and Anne E. Bentley

Published by George Frederick Kolbe, 1997

Beautiful book on a wonderful series. Its worth it for so many reason. but the photograph of Washington's original set of Comitia Americana medals in the original box commissioned by Thomas Jefferson is fairly special in and of itself.

Pure nostalga! I've just bought a 1966 Seaby's "Standard Catalogue of British coins". A bit of a rough state but for 50p not a bad bit of memorabilia!

2007 red book