Coins Books

Needs more pictures, especially the Morgan Dollar. Left it out completely which is absurd, considering it is probably the most widely collected U.S coin. Still, it is very usefull when used in conjunction with another book, like the 2006 Black Book. It is also a 2004 Edition, so the prices are not up to speed, hence using two books.

Although money in various forms has existed since the dawn of history, coinage was a distinct invention of the Greeks and their eastern neighbors the Lydians around 600 BC. The economic and cultural conditions that led to the invention of coinage is the subject of this volume of eight academic papers "presented at a colloquium held in Chicago on December 30, 1997, as part of the 99th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America." The aim of the session was "to bring together scholars who have been involved in the analysis and interpretation of evidence of the use of silver as monetary material. The scholars have expertise in archaeology, history, and metallurgical analysis, and in the problems of the background and origins of Greek coinage in antiquity."

The preface, introduction, and initial commentary by Miriam Balmuth, the editor of the volume, set out the principal issues to be covered. In the ancient Near East, as opposed to Greece, weighed bits of silver, commonly known today by the German name "Hacksilber," were used as a medium of exchange for centuries if not millennia before the introduction of coinage. Hoards of Hacksilber, once thought to be "jeweler's hoards" of raw silver, are now correctly understood to be monetary deposits much like later coin hoards. What steps led from the use of Hacksilber as money, to the use of pre-weighed and pre-stamped coins?

In "The silver hoards from Tel Dor," Ephraim Stern describes the contents and archaeological context of a Phoenician hoard of Hacksilber found in Israel that can be dated to about 1000 BC. Seymour Gitin and Amir Golani similarly describe the contents of a number of seventh-century silver hoards from Israel in "The Tel Miqne-Ekron silver hoards: the Assyrian and Phoenician connections." These papers are followed by a brief commentary by William Dever.

Zofia Anna Stos-Gale, in "The impact of the natural sciences on studies of Hacksilber and early silver coinage," focuses specifically on lead isotope provenance studies, which are able to locate the geographical origin of ancient silver objects based on the amount and isotopic character of small amounts of lead incorporated into the silver alloy. Although the silver in Greek artifacts proves to be largely Aegean in origin, this technique demonstrates that many Near Eastern silver samples came from not only the Aegean, but also Spain and Iran.

John Kroll in "Observations on monetary instruments in pre-coinage Greece" (on the one hand), and David Schaps in "The conceptual prehistory of money and its impact on the Greek economy" (on the other), take opposing views on the exact steps which led to the widespread adoption of coinage by the Greek world in the sixth century. Kroll believes that there was an intermediate phase around the time of Solon, between earlier trading in metal utensils and the later use of coinage, during which weighed silver bullion was used for exchange. Schaps disagrees, contending that the reason coinage was adopted and spread so quickly in Greece was precisely that there was no Greek tradition of using silver bullion for money. In the Near East, by contrast, silver bullion had been in use for centuries, and so coinage was seen there as much less of a novelty (and much less of a need), and so was not taken up with enthusiasm as it was in the Greek world.

In "Analyzing and interpreting the metallurgy of early electrum coins," Paul Keyser and David Clark review previous work on the composition of ancient electrum coins, cautioning against techniques such as X-ray fluorescence which examine only coin surfaces and do not penetrate to the core of the specimen. They recommend prompt-gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA), but are not yet able to report any results with the technique.

Robert Wallace, in "Remarks on the value and standard of early electrum coins," further supports a position he has taken in earlier writings, that the reason the first coinage in Asia Minor was minted in electrum, an alloy of variable composition, was precisely the need to have a way to standardize the value of the mixed metal in the marketplace.

Like many collections of papers from academic conferences, this volume is "uneven" in its treatment and style, but it is certainly valuable in bringing together a range of work on the boundary between archaeology, numismatics, and metallurgy. The work of synthesis is largely left to the reader, however, who is likely to come away also with a wish that the one of the standard practices of the sciences--to include a tightly written abstract along with every published paper--would become the standard practice in these fields as well.

"Hacksilber to Coinage" will appeal to academic specialists in Near Eastern and ancient Greek archaeology and history, students of Classical numismatics and metallurgy, and economic historians. The volume is No. 24 in the series "Numismatic Studies" of the American Numismatic Society (ISSN 0517404X - ISBN 0897222814).

If you are a Hard Times Token enthusiast or simply wish to find more about your own token like me, this is the Bible. It is an easy to read guide with quality photos of coins that are roughly life size. Throughout the book one can find references to many experts in the field of Hard Times Tokens. However, I can find no suggestions in the book as to where those of us go from here when we find that our own Hard Time Token is not included. Perhaps I can find some of the experts through the internet?

My 2 year old LOVES this book---too much, actually as he broken it! The pages came apart on me, so I have to buy another copy. The cool thing about this book is when the munchkins lose the coin that comes with the book, a quarter works fine. I purchased another put-the-coin-in-the-slot-book a few days ago, but as Ian has lost the coin it came with, and it doesn't accept any other kind of coin, it was a waste of money.

This 438-page paperback volume is comprehensive in addressing the issues facing the individual investor, and cites particular examples that illustrate those issues. The book is best described by the reviews printed on the back cover:

- What Others Have Said -

"Supplies useful information, backed by facts and figures, for the serious investor... Answers all questions in a straightforward manner. By one of the nation's most eminently successful professional numismatists." -- Coin World

"Details the formulas which have been successfully followed by thousands who have gleaned high profits through rare coin investing." -- Numismatic News Weekly

"... answers so many questions that investors should be willing to pay 10 times the price to obtain it. Books such as this by experienced numismatists are all too rare."
-- Numismatic Literary Guild Newsletter

"In this book the author and his staff of Bowers and Merena Galleries tell the secrets of coin investment success in one of the most realistic guides to investment ever published."
-- Collectors Weekly

"His book takes newcomer and numismatist a pleasant step forward in coin education. Easy, profitable reading! Recommended!"
-- The Forecaster

It probably says a lot that the author of this book is still in business publishing his newsletter 35 years after this book was published. This book came out at a very interesting time in coin collecting 'history' that is to say that the mid-1970's was a time of near chaotic market conditions in many investor markets what with the Nixon price controls, the Arab oil embargo, Carter Stagflation, decoupling of gold and the dollar, among other things. Needless to say, many things have changed since then (for instance the author includes a long discussion of the coin teletype market). Ironically, though, and a point made and predicted by the author, many things remain the same. This book is directed at coin people who want to make money in an area that they enjoy and are knowledgeable about. In fact, one of the basic tenets of this author's regimen is that one must accrue knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Knowledge about coin grading, knowledge about coin price history and knowledge about the coin market. What makes this book stand out from any of the other current books out there today is that the author comes to the business from the standpoint of an Investor first, a coin hound second. As such he has developed some rule of thumb risk-reward calculations that one can make before making a buy decision. He also speaks to the psychology of the coin market and explains how and why he has reached his conclusions. He discusses a method for testing coin price movements and demand and describes the market and calender times when buying and selling are statistically strong. He also shares some very interesting insights into coin price relationships within and between coin classes. Finally, he discusses the ways in which buyers and sellers cheat and get cheated and how to avoid the most common pitfalls. I think that money spent on this book is money well-spent and even if, after considering the proposition, you choose to Not become a coin investor you will still gain some valuable information from this book. Information that I am confident will help to pay for this book many, many times over. Four stars only because the internet has allowed some different permutations in the coin market that obviously could not have been discussed by the author. Having said that, so much of the discussion can be applied to today's discussion that this is a minor objection.

This folder is an excellent holder for your coins. Beginners can see progress very quickly which will pique there interest in coin collecting even more.

This item works like you would expect it to: it holds onto your money. It's quite difficult at times to get the coins into the spots, but they won't fall out!

This is a great book with thorough research on many Jewish coins from Israel.

The collector's book has holes the size of the coins cut out, with labels under every hole with the specific year, mint, and sometimes other information about the coin for the hole. I have found it very hard to keep a collection of circulating coins without whitman portfolios.

I took off a star because of two flaws in its design. Most importantly, the backing is very thin, and clearly shows every coin you've pressed into the other side. Also, the coins stay in place by pressing the surrounding posterboard outwards. That means that the force used to put the coin into the book is far more than the force holding it in, and it cane sometimes be a struggle to get a coin to fit.