Coins Books

If you are as fascinated with ancients as I am, you MUST have this book. You will love how easy it is to read and you will constantly refer back to it.

In roughly 200 pages that are divided into 6 chapters and 4 appendixes with copious illustrations and brief bibliographies throughout - this book is beautifully jammed with coins and information. Following the example of the first volume, this book is in plain language and is easy on the eyes in it's print, format, tables and charts.

The bulk of this book deals with differing coin types from differing geographical areas and and the artistry of the larger series. This really does a new collector a big favor because the new collector gets to purview a plethora of coin types from throughout that series and it may go a long wat to help them decide what they would like to collect. What is really important about this book is the focus on the coiner or "celator" and what he did and the role he played as artist and the chapter on "Masterpieces of Greek Art" is a beautiful read by itself with large B&W illustrations of some of the most aesthetically pleasing coins in the series.

The great strength of this book is that it is equally beautiful and useful and the author obviously loves what he is writing about rather than giving a very dry, scholarly and perfunctory survey. I highly recommend this book.

I agree with other reviewers that this book is an excellent introduction to ancient Greek coins collecting.

What I also liked about this book is:

1)The list of major issuing cities with brief but interesting comments regarding the cities' history (e.g. the dramatic events such as the destruction of Messana by Carthaginians)

2) The list of the rulers of major Hellenistic dynasties (reading about these people's lives and seeing their faces on coins is really impressive)

3) Masterpieces of Greek Art section featuring 25 beautiful coins which are among the author's favourites (I personally liked about 20 of those).

One of the things you learn from this book is that you don't actually have to OWN these beautiful coins to ENJOY them. All it takes is willingness to spend your time and energy to explore these treasures from the past.

Sayles' prose has a way of bringing alive some great coins. It is a great way for a beginner to become both more interested in the hobby as well as developing the principle of purchasing books in field of study rather than buying every forgery and fake on the market. The biggest drawback is that you really need Volume I as an introduction to the series and collecting, then pick up the other volumes as your interests expand. It took me about two years to get all six volumes. They're worth it at a reasonable price, but no substitute for other standard reference works. You can also loan them out to friends to get them interested.

Having collected ancient coins for decades, I must confess to a real fondness for the Sayles books, and for this one in particular. It is beautifuly illustrated, as well as informative, and makes the reader truly want to own the coins which Sayles discusses. One thing which makes this better for new collectors than some other books, is that Sayles isn't touting ancient coins as an investment. They are NOT a sound investment for the average collector, who can expect a 30% or higher LOSS when reselling the coins which most average collectors can afford to buy -- beautiful as they are, the typical coins which the average collector can afford are NOT going to shoot through the roof in value, even if they are extremely rare or unique. The market strength and bullish demand isn't present to allow the average collector to profit from most of his or her coins. What makes the Sayles book appealing is its inspiration for readers to COLLECT these coins and treasure them, as they have been treasured for thousands of years, and YES, it is thrilling indeed to buy a coin of which only two or three other specimens are known in the world, and -- YES! -- it is possible to own coins which are absolutely unique. Thanks to generations of dedicated collectors, it is even possible to buy -- for small sums -- coins which have established provenances dating back a century or more. My own collection includes coins once owned by President John Quincy Adams and by J. P. Morgan, but they each cost less than some best-selling potboiler novels which will be forgotten by next season. Read Sayles and begin to dream!!!

As a complete beginner, I found this an interesting book to read. It seems to cover both the finance side of coin collecting along with the hobby aspect, something I appreciated while reading it. I recommend it.

Scott Travers makes numismatical things easy to understand. A great book for all. I highly reccommend it!

This book had many tips for the new collector. There are e-mail addresses and address of people that can help with coins that you are not sure are errors. It tells you what coins to buy and which are not a good bet. All in all, I've you're a new collector, buy it!

I read a good part of this book while flying from Athens to Vienna and I have mixed feeling about it. The book itself, as a publication that is, is way below present-day acceptable standards with b&w low resolution (bearly distinguisable) photos of coins on a dark-brown recyclable paper. Altough the content is always more important than the cover, the overall quality bothered me a lot. Content-wise the situation is much better. Altough I am not really interested in US coin varieties, presenting mint errors, how they were made or how much they cost, what to consider etc is helpful for every collector and I did learn a couple of new things. What I especially enjoyed was the coin grading guide which was quite thorough and extended to many pages. This was quite rewarding as it was one of the most important reasons I purchased the book in the first place. I also liked the information about the coin market, which -although commonsensical in large part- made an interesting reading and helped me in a couple of investing decisions. to conclude, I did gain knowledge from this book, but apart from the grading stuff it was more of a light reading than a source of great information. Since it costs only a few dollars, I would recommend it to beginners but certainly not to experienced collectors.

If you have ever had a coin in your pocket you need to have this book in your library. Scott A. Travers is an amazing writer who carefully and thoughtfully explains everything you need to know about coin collecting.

A little over a year ago, my then 5 year old son decided he'd like to collect the state quarters. I did a search on Amazon & found this item for him.

This has been a great purchase. What you get is the coin folder & a small book. The book gives details about each state. The information is clear & concise. It's just enough to hold the interest of a little kid.

This coin collection is one of my son Patrick's most prized possessions. He has diligently searched through change, looking for whichever quarters he's needed. He has refined his reading skills sounding out the states' names as he looks for where each quarter belongs in the folder. He has waited in anxious anticipation for new quarters to be released.

We haven't had trouble getting the quarters into their places in the folder. It just takes a firm, straight push. Once they're in, they're not coming out without a good deal of effort.

I would recommend this item. This, along with a roll of random quarters would make a really good, unique birthday party gift for any kid, aged 4-12.

My kids love this folder. Yes the quarters are a little difficult to get in, but i rather have them stay then fall out. They love the facts book it comes with. It is a great buy for the money. i have already bought 4 and will probably buy extras for gifts.

My 7 yr old wanted to start a coin collection. I was looking for something inexpensive, yet informative to get started. This set met both those requirements. My child loves it and has been quickly filling in slots with state quarters. The folder is also small enough to store anywhere and can be transported easily to school, etc. when my child wants to show friends the collection. The booklet gives a bit of information about each state and also information concerning coin collecting, i.e. how to care for your coins and other cool coins available to collect. I would recommend this to family or friends.

Folders arrived looking a bit beat up, like they had been in stock too long. Spaces are too small--impossible to put in coins without using a hammer. Positive notes--kids like collecting the quarters and the booklet that comes with the folder is quite informative.

We love these books. We have them for our older children and are ordering 2 more for our little ones. True it is not easy to ge the quarters in, but no need to use tools and the upside is that they don't fall out. We are pleased.

We gave this to our six year old niece and she loved it. She and her dad are collecting the uncirculated versions of each new presidential dollar using this book.

This book was everything I expected and more. I bought them as gifts for 2 young ladies and they enjoyed it.

The coin album and the accompanying booklet are done very well. We were disappointed that all the presidents up to George W. Bush were not included. Other than that it is a fine album.

This is a nice book- magnetic catch keeps it closed. Holds coins nicely. Has slots for all deceased Presidents and 6 extra. Nicely illustrated book with a two page spread of info on each and every president up to G.W. Bush. I collect the Presidential dollars for my Grandchildren- and I highly recommend this book- I am very pleased with it. I will give it to each of my grandchildren along with the dollars I have collected so far- they can put them in themselves- and enjoy this book. Then, each year at Christmas I will give them the 4 dollars issued in the past year to add to it- it will give them and myself something to look forward to each year...for many years to come.

this is an awesome product with a sturdy case you open it to a fold out and have attached a 64 page book w/ all kinds of tidbits about all the presedents also has a spot for all the coins and they are easy to insert and very snug and will not fall out its a great deal for all your Presedential Dollar collecting needs.....

I found this book scholarly, and I think it is intended to be so. Were this book otherwise organized, it could be easier to manage. I found that the many (fifty or more per chapter) footnotes were cumbersome to look at, being grouped together apart from the main text. Furthermore, most of them refer just to the origin of data. But some have more extensive contents. I could have done without many of them, but not of all of them. That kept me jumping around. Plates with illustrations are similarly placed, but this is not so annoying.

This overview of the roman monetary system and coinage in use for a millennium in the Roman world is compelling. Prices and wages are also analyzed, as far as extant documents allow.

Politicians from around the world could learn a lot about how Gresham's law, the economic principle that bad money drives out good (good money automatically disappears because of hoarding) works; Rome provided good example that people can't be fooled easily.

Rating this book with four stars, I'm judging it as a numismatist interested in roman history and economics. I'd like to see ratings from people with other concerns.

A previous Amazon.com reviewer of Kenneth Harl's "Coinage in the Roman Economy" expressed an interest in seeing a review of the book from the viewpoint of other than a numismatist. I suppose that I can at least partly do this. Although I do collect some ancient Roman coins, I am quite casual in my approach to it and, in truth, I am more interested in the history and people behind the coins than the coins as objects in themselves. In looking on the Internet for information about the use and "real world" value of coins in the Roman Empire, I came across mention of Professor Harl's book. Wanting to better understand how those discolored bits of silver and bronze had come to be and how they were used, I understood that there was no better source.

"Coinage in the Roman Economy" is unabashedly, unflinchingly academic in its approach to its subject. Expect no whimsical anecdotes about mad emperors; don't imagine that there will be thrilling descriptions of great battles. It is safe to say that Brad Pitt's agent is not negotiating for screen rights to the book. Page after page, Harl details the intricacies of Roman monetary policy, how emperors gradually (and sometimes not so gradually) diluted the precious metal content of the coins, reduced their weight, and repeatedly altered exchange rates in efforts to achieve financial stability. Yet, there is an oddly compelling flow and rhythm to that description of one thousand years of coin history as we watch the story of this instrument of Roman power and art play out against a distant background of civil wars, invasions, foreign wars, and calamities. To tackle this book, a reader should already be familiar with the central events and personalities in the long history of Rome. Otherwise, the information presented cannot be integrated with the larger story. But for the student of Roman history, there is much here not readily available elsewhere, including insights into the standard of living in those distant centuries.

For collectors of ancient coins, of course, there is another entire realm of information contained in this book: explanations of the how those treasured bits of metal were manufactured and distributed, how much a denarius could buy under Augustus and how little under Claudius Gothicus, why new eras brought new coins such as the aurelianus and the nummus.

The ideal reader of "Coinage in the Roman Economy" is one who blends interests in both Rome and the coins themselves. It is not light reading, by any means, but effort expended will be rewarded by a new appreciation of the real importance of these small pieces of metal to that complex and now-vanished world.

This volume is the only one I have come across to satisfactorily treat the question of economic context and actual usage patterns of Roman coins. It is both scholarly (containing voluminous footnotes) and readable. Of particular interest is the information pertaining to the frequently neglected period of the third and fourth centuries.

By far the most complete work on the subject I was able to locate. The chronological orginization is both useful and intuitive and the writing style makes this book fairly easy reading considering the depth of information it provides.

This is very little help for starting your own business and covers more of what the author went through. It is almost discouraging of beginning a store in your area - It covers the basics and common sense corners - and is for someone just toying with the idea of opening up a pagan store - not for anyone that has done more than a few hours of research though.

It's too bad my friend didn't have this book. I see it all too often in the pagan community. Another wonderful little metaphysical shop is going out of business, its owners disillusioned or, to put it in the best possible spin, "older and wiser" now. Everybody wants to open their own little witch store and yet so few of these stores-including ones online-survive the first year. It's as if they decide on the spur of the moment to venture into the business of spirituality and discover the pitfalls too late. And that's what Terri Paajanen's DRAWING THE THREE OF COINS: HOW TO OPEN AND RUN A PAGAN STORE is all about-avoiding the pitfalls.

Of all the pagan stores I've visited in the past five years within 100 miles of my home, I can't name a single one that's still in business today that was in business a year ago. They weren't mobbed by the local fundamentalists or burned out of their homes. They just simply, quietly went out of business, often times with no more notice than an unexpected CLOSED sign on the front door. The warnings were usually there-in the stagnant or desperate energy inside the store, if not in the lack of turnover in stock or the empty shelves.

This latest note is an email from a friend back home, saying she's closing her store as of the first day of November and would I like to purchase some merchandise at 50% off. I've patronized her store every time I've been in her area. She had the best quality rose oil I've ever used! I'd noticed on my last two visits that she had broken all the rules I've read in Terri's new book. I'd mentioned the book to her, asking gently if she'd like to review it. Before I got the sentence out of my mouth, she stopped me.

"Oh, everybody thinks they can open and run a pagan store," she told me, sounding exasperated. "Everybody's got one online and it's defunct after six months because they get tired of updating it. And then people go out and try to open their own brick-and-mortar store like we did here and...well, you'd just be surprised at how many of my patrons tell me they plan to open up a store just like mine but down the street."

"A lot of them do," I reminded her. "You did." She'd been miffed about the quality of herbs in the store down the street and had opened her own store a month later. The other store lingered for another six months and then vanished. "You thought you could do better and you wanted to bring more pagan acquaintances into your life. And better herbs to your customers."

She agreed reluctantly. I asked again if she'd like to read DRAWING THE THREE OF COINS: HOW TO OPEN AND RUN A PAGAN STORE. I thought it might give her some helpful hints, especially since I was the only customer she'd had in the store all day and she was out of rose oil for my second visit in a row.

Instead, she rolled her eyes at me. "I don't need that! I mean, I've already opened a pagan store and I'm already running it. What would I need it for?"

I looked around the store at the dusty clutter, the $1200 hand-sculpted statues of Hecate that had been sitting in her store on consignment for nearly a year, the slightly skewed candles in the store window melting slowly in the glare of the summer sun. I glanced around her counters at the merchandise, all of which I recognized from Azure Green and priced significantly higher than in the Azure Green retail catalog. Surely there was something in Terri's book that she'd find beneficial.

"It's not just for new people," I told her. "Although it's a great resource. But it's got all kinds of tips and lists of vendors. And advice that she garnered after running her own pagan business for years."

My friend laughed. "You know, I could write a book like that, too. Just ask any pagan store owner, and they'll tell you how to open and run a pagan shop."

I would if I could find any pagan shops that have been around as long as Terri's. I'm not saying Terri's book would have saved my friend's store, but I do think it might have saved her a lot of trials and errors.

The book is very short but written in a friendly and concise language. It provides a lot of vital information on the subtle details that many Pagan store owners overlook but contribute to the demise of many stores. Most Pagans stores in my area have been closing lately and after reading this book I found out why.

The book doesn't talk about everything you need to know to open a Pagan store but it does something more important, it tells you the little details that you need to pay attention to to create have a successful store that won't close after the first year. I haven't found a comparable source elsewhere.

Drawing the Three of Coins was a wonderful start-up expense... well worth every dollar. We already had the "bones" of our store built when we purchased it, but it was such a relief to know that we were on the right track... that we had considered everything we should have considered... and that we were doing this for the "right" reasons... These ALONE were worth the price of the book... not to mention, all the helpful hints, the interesting ideas, and the resources given. Terri is, as I recently found out... is a truly genuine person, not just a name on a cover, or a search field on Amazon.... she has some thing I didn't (and perhaps you don' either) which is the gift of experience - and she was willing to share it... accept her gift to you, and buy this book.

Unless you haven't noticed or you are blind, America's quarters have changed their design. This is the result of America's 50 State Quarter program which will commemorate each state in the union with designs submitted by the individual state. Since the kick off of the program in 1998 people have gone wild in collecting these coins. The beauty of their designs, historical significance and availability has jump started a new generation of coin collectors.

This guide gives us the politics and history of how this program got started and finally became a reality. From there it goes on to the basics of coin collecting for the novice with of course a focus on the quarters. Any information or questions that you have about these quarters are readily answered in this book.

If this is your first time in collecting coins (and you chose the quarters) "America's State Quarters" is a good start. It has all the information that you need to know. For those who have collected for years Ganz's book is adequate in introducing you to this new craze. The guide book has some faults. The pictures are terrible. Don't even try to discern the faults in the coins as described in the pictures. The pictures are poor throughout the text.

You're given a profile of each state quarter. Many of the profiles are incomplete (information not available). It would have been better for the author to provide us with a summary of those states with incomplete information and then update us as the years go by.

This is a good book for the beginning coin collector and for those who are specifically interested in the state quarter program.

My childhood hobby of coin collecting has been revived by the state quarters program, and I am having a lot of fun with this! I casually bought this book because I decided to interest my niece in coin collecting. Being a financial investor, when I came across the section on the value of error coins, I got excited all over again. It is wonderful to have as much fun doing something in my 40's as I did during my childhood. My niece stays with me for two weeks this summer and I can't wait to show her my quarter collection and get her collection started. This is also a great way to educate her about the different states. The book has a web site with even more information, and web sites for each state are also listed. What a great educational tool!

Here it is: the definitive gudie to state quarters. How to collect them, what they're worth, how error designs were mdae (and what they are worth), what coins have been struck and what designs are being considered for future coins. The book is really two books in one, an essay covering the origins and history of the state quarter program (with chapters on ivnestment, grading, errors, and how your state can design a coin to fit into the setries), and the second half is a catalogue covering each state in similar analysis. There are other books that cover the subject, but none is as authoritative or as interesting.

What a great book! It told me what coins to save out of circulation, and what the value is of errors that I can take out of pocket change. Even how Florida can design its coin for 2004. History, politics, and what the coins are worth. Who could ask for more!

While I mostly collect mechanical banks I do have some interest in still banks. This is the book most often referred to by collectors and sellers alike on E-bay or other auction sites regarding size, rarity, and price. The first sections deal with care and reproductions, followed by illustrations of still banks from manufacturers catalogs. Then comes a color section on banks followed by an appendix. There are several drawbacks to this book. The $49.95 price for a book published in 2000 is high in my opinion. Secondly, many of the banks are photographed together rather than individually so you really don't get that much detail. You also do not get too much information on each bank.

Great book for the collector. Better than the earlier editions in that it has the prices listed with the pictures instead of in the back of the book.
Still the same banks that were in the earlier editions though.

I was at an auction and five out of the six banks there were listed in the book.

The Penny Bank Book is a pictorial and value guide to collecting banks. Containing both good pictures and approximate values, it is the most comprehensive bank collecting book available at this time. It is a must for any serious collector. This is the guide I keep in my car to advise me.

I never buy books due to the fact you can read most stuff on the net. This book however, is so well researched and put together that I STRONGLY recommend buying it. There is so much informations, and a truck load of pictures of all sorts of tables.

What can I say? A comprehensive volume (just like the other two of the series), with (mostly) high quality playfield and backglass photographs plus a LOT of insightful first-hand background stories about and from the people who brought us all these wonderful moments of our lives. You'll even like the tables you've never seen (and probably won't ever see) in your life.

What an incredible book! I use the term 2nd golden age since the 1930's was the first.

This is the second of a three book set written by Michael Shalhoub, and is a must-have for any serious pinball collector or enthusiast. The book is an exhaustive study of each manufacturers (The "Big Three"-Bally, Gottlieb and Williams - also Stern + Chicago Coin and others) output of pins between 1970-1981 when pinball ruled the arcades. During this particular time period more quarters were dropped in pinball machines than was spent at the movie theater box office in the United States!

What makes this book so special (as well as Mr Shalhoub's other titles)is the fact that he interviews so many of the pioneers (artists, designers etc) of pinball, which is no easy task on the authors part since he lives in Australia and almost 90% of all pinball machines were produced in the United States (Chicago)- also some of the individuals interviewed and pictured are well past 80 years old.

The book is a simple read (if you can look away from the great pictures)and each new chapter covers a different year with many highlights (interviews) included, the subject matter/questions the author presents contains specific information related to the particular individual highlighted. The authors enthusiasm is contageous as he explains the features and strategy of each particular game.

Today sadly only 1 manufacturer remains "Stern", but they are committed to pinball and still produce several thousand machines a year. This book is like a great walk down memory lane for anyone (35 and over...) who played the games before video games dominated. I highly recomend this book.

Its my first read of Michael Shalhoub's work and I really wanted to like this book - the author being a fellow Australian and obviously a committed pinball enthusiast and historian. Schiffer Publishing books are also presented beautifully and right from the first viewing of the dust jacket, I wanted to see what was inside! But as a read, this book just doesn't cut it IMO.

A 'compendium' is, literally, a short complete summary, or list of various items. And in that regard, this book seeks to highlight every release, from each Manufacturer, for a given year. So the intention is absolutely fine. But there are two ways to tackle such a task. One would be to approach it entirely technically, and discuss the mechanics of each machine to pretty much the exclusion of anything else. The other would be to place each machine into its appropriate historical or cultural significance within the pinball genre, and discuss perhaps everything *but* the mechanics. Or, you could perhaps try both. In this instance, unfortunately for me, Shalhoub has tried only the former approach. Each machine has a paragraph right underneath the relevant photo and it is usually a summary of just the scoring features on the table, with only a few machines getting any in-depth history about them or the cultural significance those machines may have had. To me, this equals 240 pages of mind-numbing technical boredom.

Yes, there is some history here. The author has gone to great lengths to interview some of the absolute legends behind the scenes and these have been spliced in as a sort of page filler between each machines' stats. But really, this kind of historical effort deserved another whole book of its own. There is precious little history directly related to the pinball machines themselves and to my mind, if its titled a 'Compendium', it should have stuck to being exactly that.

The lack of titleing on each page (for example, you forget what year you are reading about, because its only mentioned once at the start of each Chapter) is also annoying. How hard would it have been to footnote each page with the Chapter name and number?

Photos of machines make or break a book like this IMHO. We all want to see the absolute best photos of the machines nearest to our hearts. And I would say generally in this hobby, aside from the photography probvided by the manufacturers themselves, the photography standard is fairly poor - there are many other poorly put together pinball books that lay testament to this fact. That's probably no surprise though - very few of us are trained to photograph the things we love best, whether its a family member or a pinball machine. But a book of this nature should have the very best photography available IMO.

Unfortunately, the photography, while extensive, is certainly not of a quality that is comparable with other hobbyist books in and out of this genre. Many of the shots of major players from Gottlieb/Williams etc appear to be snap-shots taken from the same Conferences the author (or others) have visited while in the United States. Quite a few machines appear fuzzy, out of focus, the color separations all over the place and the general standard of machine photography quite amateurish. Of course, access to these key people and older rarer machines is limited, and so the author has had to use whatever photo resources he can muster. I understand that fully. But that doesn't change the fact that the use of such non-professional photos, which an author based in the Unites States perhaps *may* have been able to work around, lowers the overall quality feel of this work. And in my estimation, marks it way down. Other authors have been able to do this better, for whatever reason.

In summary: if you're after a blow by blow scoring instruction on each of these machines from this period, some OK personal photos from real collections, and a good overall history of the behind-the-scenes players of the Big 3, then you'll enjoy this somewhat rambling journey. For me, chasing a good read and some reminders about the machines themselves and their place in the history of the game (instead of how to play them), I was left wanting a lot more.

The best description I can give of this work is as a "reference work," and it is not "literary." It is profusely illustrated, but not all notes are depicted.

As a collector of currency for over 50 years, several errors in picture captions popped out at me immediately. I have also compared the pricing with the current market, and as any such volume the data is already getting stale. U.S. Currency is red hot at this time, and the market is extremely volatile. It is difficult for a catalog of this type to be useful for other than a short time frame, if the valuations are a reason for it's purchase.

Other than these small quibbles, a recommended work. Four stars.

THIS BOOK IS OH SO INFORMATIVE ON PRICING ! ALSO HAS GREAT PICTURES ! THE ONLY REASON I DIDN'T GIVE IT 5 STARS, WAS THAT IT DID NOT GIVE PRICES FOR DIFFERENT PRINTING "BLOCKS" WITHIN ANY GIVEN YEAR. ALSO DID NOT CONTAIN INFO ON HOW MANY NOTES WERE PRINTED ON ANY GIVEN YEAR OR FROM ANY GIVEN FEDERAL BRANCH.

The words "absolutely incredible" just doesn't do this book justice !!! This book is filled with breathe taking color pictures of U.S. Paper Currency and goes into great detail as to the value of each and every note anyone could possibly collect. This reference book not only covers the small-sized notes but also the collectible horse-blanket notes. This book is fast becoming my most favorite reference book in my library. This is a reference book just like the yearly revised Standard Guide to Small-Sized U.S. Paper Money books and when you combine both of these reference books in your private library you definitely can not go wrong !!!

I'm new (again) to the hobby after ~5 years and I picked this book up over the weekend. I cannot evaluate or review the pricing information contained in this book but it seems to be on par with what I am seeing in the market. As I mentioned in the title, I'm really liking all of the color pictures and detailed information about the different series of notes - color pictures probably outnumber the black and white pictures 20 to 1. I'm very glad I purchased this one!