Coins Books

Book was filled with pictures of games I played as a kid. Lots of great pics and wonderful content. Price guide is not a reason to buy this book. But if you want to find a game from a long time ago this is it.

The market is a big determiner of what these games go for. The minute this book hit the stands it was out of date. Bill Kurtz fails to touch the pulse of collectors in this guide as it appears to be more ego gratification than a viable resource. And he considers himself in the business?...

I wasn't planning on buying this book due to the price. Boy, was I glad I did! Tons of pictures and information. I'm already trying to hunt down one of my all time favorite arcade games; Wrestlefest (Not mentioned or pictured in the book, but I was inspired.)

Contem varias fotos de maquinas de fliperama (muitas eletromecanicas) e outras tipo "arcade" . Infelizmente faltam algumas fotos de maquinas que fizeram muito sucesso no Brasil, como Big Shot (73), Circus (73) , OXO, Big Indian . De qualquer maneira vale a pena !

If you're interested in video arcade games from the 80s, this book will disappoint you. The content is VERY pinball-centric, with only passing mentions of arcade cabinets here and there.

Not what I expected.

As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said: "...simply elementary...." (my dear Watson)
I returned the book

This book is woefully inadequate for anybody who wishes to learn to grade modern U.S. coins. One explanation for this may be the 1990 copyright date because it quite simply leaves out critical information for certain collectible U.S. coins. This book does have some vital and relevant information such as coin collecting nomenclature but this information is available in better, more helpful books. Certainly, the sections dedicated to "High Points of Design" and "Visual Impairment Severity Levels" which use photographic blow-ups of actual coins to show points and areas of concern for the grading of coins are an excellent visual aid, and especially helpful regarding U.S. commemoratives which are thoughtfully included in the book. However, the book lacks absolutely anything about the Kennedy Half Dollar and leaves out essential Visual Impairment Diagrams of the Jefferson Nickel; nothing for the Anthony Dollar either which, considering the fact that they are barely collectible in anything less than uncirculated conidtion, is probably forgivable, but still...
The book you want to buy right now instead, flaws and all, is 'Photograde.' I would definitely avoid this book unless one is only interested in building a so-called type coin collection or U.S. commemoratives in which case this is a definite buy. Otherwise, wait for the inevitable update because this version is outdated!

This is an excellent tool for learning coin grading. A must for every collector.

If you are just beginning to grade US coins, this book is NOT for you. Please check out Photograde: Official Photographic Grading Guide for United States Coins, 19th Edition by James F. Ruddy. My 10 year old uses Photograde and is becoming very adept at grading his coins.

If you are a novice coin grader and are looking to move into the next level of grading coins, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU!!

If you are going to purchase expensive coins in Mint State or Proof condition, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU TOO!! (Remember the old adage "Buy the book before you buy the coin")

If you have a few years of coin grading experience and still have not totally figured out how the third party grading services are coming up with the grades on Mint State and Proof coins, this book will give you the insight that you are seeking. Jim Halperin takes the art of grading coins and starts to explain the key factors that go into specifically grading Mint State and Proof coins. Remember, grading coins is an art, not a science. If you are looking for a scientific formula to apply to coin grading and consistently delivers the same result, it does not exist. But, Halperin does present many examples and gives a "formula" that you can use as a guide to developing your skills. The only way to develop that skill is to use it.

Simply reading this book (or any book on grading coins) will not improve your skills, but practice and working at it will. The book features hundreds of high quality photos that guide you in evaluating many different U.S. coins. The book was written in 1990, so photos of more recent coins are not included. The subjective and mystifying attribute of "eye-appeal" is very well described and illustrated through the use many photos showing "Visual Impairment Severity Levels". The "High Points of Design" which also factors into grading are illustrated through the use of many photos.

The bottom line: Use this book to improve your existing grading skills of Mint State and Proof coins by practicing the concepts illustrated and demonstrated in this book. Once you reach the next level you won't need this book and you will be able to grade any Mint State or Proof U.S. coin. If you can't get a personal training session from an "expert coin grader" like Jim Halperin, this is the next best thing.
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Both the title and cover make you think that you are going to learn how to grade Mint State and Proof US coins. In fact, it does very little of that. When I opened up the book I was expecting to see an organized book with a picture of a mint state coin 60-70 and the expected amount of marks, luster, eye appeal etc. The same goes for Proof coins. I was hoping they would examine all the major types of US coins. Was I ever so wrong. Instead, when I opened the book it resembled a picture book that you would get a 3 yr old. There is very little writing in the book, along with virtually no descriptions. I expected a higher caliber book from the author. I guess what can you expect for $10.00. Stick to Photograde, ANA'S Official Grading Stands, and the Redbook. They are so much better.

This folder is good for the adult collector, but I would not recommend it for younger persons. It is nice that there are slots for both the Philadelphia and Denver mints. However, this folder contains absolutely no information about the individual designs of the state quarters. One of the most interesting things about collecting these quarters is learning the history behind the state designs. In comparison to other state quarter collection books, this folder is bland.

If you truly want to collect these coins you ought to have representatives of each mint. Besides, it adds to the challenge of collecting. I live in the North East and rarely find a coin from Denver. But when I do it's a gem! These books are very simple, as is with all Whitman coin folders. It keeps the coins neatly in place for safe keeping and future viewing. If these are the qualities you're looking for, then this is the folder to buy.

This folder is fantastic... with one exception: I can't locate a copy of book #2. Who wants to collect only books 1 and 3? Do not buy this book unless you have already located the subsequent folders.

I was disappointed with this folder. I have become interested in collecting the Statehood Quarters and wanted a folder in which to keep them as they are issued. However, with this folder it is necessary to collect quarters from both the Denver and Philadelphia mints - something I was not interested in doing. Unfortunately, unless you collect both sets, half of the folder is left empty. I wish they would have made separate folders for each mint instead of combining them as they have.

This folder is good for the adult collector, but I would not recommend it for younger persons. It is nice that there are slots for both the Philadelphia and Denver mints. However, this folder contains absolutely no information about the individual designs of the state quarters. One of the most interesting things about collecting these quarters is learning the history behind the state designs. In comparison to other state quarter collection books, this folder is bland.

This easy-to-read reference is a great way to look up any coin and embellish your collection. With commemorative information and a great civil/revolutionary war section, i think anyone serious about their oin collection should think about buying this book.

2000 American Guide to U.S. Coins is a good resource for any American coin collector. It has wonderful pictures and I love the Civil War section. I recommend this book to everyone that collects coins!

This book is an excellent resource for the new collector or the old collector who is staring to purchase coins. It is easy to understand and the layout makes it easy to find your coin. It could contain more info on different grades of coins from good to uncirculated, most are just fine to uncirculated. A must have for the new collector!

This is definately not a 2000 book. Coin dates stop at 1984. What a waste of money this book was.

This book is by far the best for refering all US Coins and gives a far price listing for all coins. Great for beginners and expert collectors. If you going to collect coins this book is a must.

Excellent Reference Book, Pleased with quality. Rather complete. Glad I purchased it. Found the coins I had that were not in other catalogs.

This is a coin catalogue worth buying even if you don't have a single coin it lists. The Unusual coins are really unusual in the way they depict human vain hopes, unattainable dreams, and impossible ambitions. You can see here coins from imaginary or lost empires (Russian monarchists struck their coins in 1990), states that have not been recognized by a single sovereign nation (Hutt River Province) or worlds which existed only in the imagination of writers (the Middle Earth) or private mints (Russian euro coins...). All this is a great tribute to human imagination and entepreneurial spirit, neatly presented in the form of a handy volume.
Naturally, you may actually collect these coins. In this case you will find the typical Krause quality - lots of pictures are missing, some coins are not listed completely but as it is in the case of all Krause catalogues: you just won't find anything better!

This book, published as an accompaniment to the big daddy compendium titled 'Standard Catalog of World Coins' is given over to a slew of issues of "novel non-circulating coins, including fantasy issues, micro-nation coinage, medallic types and coins of pseudo-etats." As such, one will find issues from places as varied as 'Atlantis,' the Republic of China, Great Britain, 'Sealand' and Gardiner's Island. Some of the coins listed will have been issued, as in the Republic of China pieces during tumultuous, or perhaps I should say interesting times as a nascent although ultimately unsuccessful state struggled for legitimacy; others were officially issued by recognized and sovriegn nations but not for circulation; some were produced by entities claiming sovriegn status on somewhat shaky legal gounds, such as the above-mentioned Sealand which occupies a World War II anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea; and finally there is a handful of issues that have simply been made up and struck from whole cloth in a manner of speaking,in the monetary equivalent of a vanity press publication. There are other sub-categories but I'm sure you get the idea. The book describes the physical characteristics of the issues, tries to establish mintage dates and numbers, and metallic composition, and sometimes give some background information to boot. The resource is perfect for one attempting to find a little information about something he has found and is curious about. Unfortunately, it is no good for one who wants more than a little information as the authors give nothing more than thumbnail sketches when they give any background information at all. I think the book really falls down on this point. In addition, the author/editors neglect to tell the public what criteria were used to include and exclude various issues. I know almost nothing about this genre but even I immediately questioned some of the entries found in the United States section. I wish that a certain set of rules had been followed or perhaps that the book had been broken up into the various categories so that one would know pretty soon whether these were issued as modern fantasy nation pieces or as once circulating unrecognized states pieces, etc. I bought this version even though there is a later edition now available for the simple reason of cost. This edition can be had for very little money and it is worth every fantasy penny spent, in my opinion.

The book has many pictures and the coin price evaluations seem to be up-to-date. I bought this book because of its ECU coin listings.
Some countries are well covered like the Netherlands and Spain but on other countries most Ecu coins are missing.
What is really bad is that there are no Pre-Euro coins in this book. Therefore i give only 3 stars.

I knew the second edition and hoped this 4th edition would be much more than that first attempts to cover this endless territory of unofficial coins. The reality I found disappointing. There seems no clear line in choices which "coins" are in the book and which were not included. 80 year old issues that should be in this catalogue are missing; recent purely commercial issues that could be ignored are included.
Prices of the more modern issues are often only the issue price. That doesn't help to find a real market price.
All together I would say in some cases this book can be really helpful, but often you will find nothing about the coin/medal you're looking for.

Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins won the American Numismatic Literary Guild's 2005 award: "Best World Coin Book 2005." This speaks for itself as the classic work in the field concerning the early Spanish-American mints and their coinages from 1536 to 1773.

I will not apologize for anyone taking offense to my review about this book.

Simply put, I expected more and it just didn't live up to my personal expectations. So, I stand by my opinion. Mr. Dilcher although amusing, I'm a bit too mature to engage in the puerile game of "I Challenge You". As far as boasting about the Numismatic award, I congratulate the author on the recognition. However, let's be honest and let's keep it real according to the latest Numismatic Literary Guild (NLG v37 II, pg 3)newsletter the body that bestows that award consists of individuals completely "outside" of the numismatic professional field. Again this is my review and I stand by it.

I purchased this book about a year ago and have found it to be an invaluable reference. It is an incredible reference and well worth the price. It provides very detailed information on each of the Spanish colonial mints along with great biographies of each assayer. It is also illustrated with an incredible number of photographs and drawings of nearly every variety of cob coin. I have used it many times to help decipher what I am seeing in my own coins as often only part of a letter or other marking is visible. I have also really appreciated the research that went into naming each of the assayers as other cob books list some of these as unknown. For anyone interested in Spanish colonial cobs I would recommend this book, along with the "Practical Book of Cobs" by Daniel and Frank Sedwick and "Spanish Colonial Silver Coins in the Florida Collection" by Alan K. Craig.

I must disagree with the totally asinine review posted by "L. Scott". This book isn't cheap, but is reasonably priced for a full sized, extensively illustrated, hardback book on such a specialized topic. Anyone who is serious about collecting cob treasure coins would laugh at someone saying the book was overpriced, especially since reasonably nice cobs go for well over $200.

Mr. Scott, all this info might be available somewhere else through multiple sources, but you must appreciate the fact that it is all consolidated in this excellent work by Mr. Menzel. By the way, I would be interested in a listing of your most respected sources on the topic. Please post them if they are so well known and so readily available.

This author certainly exercised due diligence in his work. I would be anxious to see what, if anything, you have contributed as writing to the advancement of this topic. If it is as you call a "rich topic" bring it on. There are not many reference sources out there and I would gladly treat your's with an open mind in review.

To all Amazon customers: Ignore this guy's review if you are serious about collecting and won't feel too hurt about spending $125. I'll bet that you will be happy with your purchase.

I read the book painstakinly cover to cover and must say the pictures are nice but the book is not worth the price.

Most of the information found in this book is information I have read in other periodicals, journals, and publications.

The book tries to cover too many "facts" yet not enough depth to give you the impression the author did due diligence in his research. Rather I felt he was just compiling information from other sources. In my opinon the book is a disappointing work on such a rich topic. Very disappointing.

I was very pleased with the article. Also, very pleased with the delivery.

The portfolio is nice. A little disappointed that there was not a space for both a Denver Mint coin and a Philadelphia Mint coin. Good buy for the price.

This Portfolio is 16" x 11" which isn't easily put on a shelf. No wonder that wasn't in the description. A Brad was in top right corner of the cover, for reasons unknown. While it will do the job it wasn't what I thought when I ordered it.

This item is very functional & sturdy so it serves the purpose, but the coin holders have to be pried out to insert the coin ,sometimes this is difficult.It is a good value for the money though.

I was surprised at the size of the Portfolio. It is huge. This is not a Portfolio what will be easy to fit onto a bookcase.

A great way to start your coin collection . I highly recommend this to everyone.

This version folder allows the coins to fit in much more easily. No longer that thumb-numbing fight I put up with the last few years.

Previous reviewers who said the holes are too small are right. It's almost impossible to insert quarters with just your hands. I found that it's not so hard when you use some kind of tool to help you, though.

First, place the folder on a solid flat surface. Then position the quarter correctly, and push it in as much as you can by hand. Now find something to help you get it in the rest of the way without damaging it. I used the rubber-coated handle of a pair of pliers. Place the tool on the edge of the coin that's still sticking up, and apply pressure to force it into the hole.

After I got the quarters into my folder, they looked fine. There was no noticable damage. Though the hole size is annoying, this is still a good folder, and I would recommend it, especially if you already have Statehood Quarters #1.

I used the first Whitman binder for the first three years of the statehood quarters and it held the quarters pretty well. But something strange happened when they made the binders for years 4 through 7 (Vol. 2) and 8 through 10 (Vol. 3). They must have got the idea that the U.S. Mint shrunk the size of the quarter, because it is almost impossible to fit the quarters in the slots. All have to be raised up on an end to fit snugly, but it looks awful. That didn't work for me, so I have found another binder that does a better job. It's hard to believe the leading coin book maker missed the boat on this one.

I am very unhappy with the new Statehood Quarter #2 book. I purchased 2 and wasted my money. The quarters do not fit in the slots that were made for them. The slots are way too small. I had to manually enlarge the slot in order to use the books.

It came pretty fast--my only hangup is the lack of secure holding of the quarters_ the 'pouches' have no flap or other means to keep quarters where you want them

On the cover it reads "Philadelphia & Denver Mints" and it has only 50 slots for the quarters.

One of the first purchases I've ever had to return (...) but this album is of little value. It is comprised primarily of plastic pages that hold 2x2 coin folders into which the coins must be inserted before mounting. They don't mention that these are required but (conveniently!) include an order blank for them. While these are commonly used by coin collectors the beginning collector, who is among the most likely to buy this product, will not likely have them and will be unable to use the album until they are acquired at an additional cost. Not very thoughtful if purchased as a gift! There are several others on the market and any one of them would be a better selection.

I think the album is very nice and more than worth the price. It works very well for the 50 state quarters including basic facts about each state. If coin holders were included, it would be perfect. I am not sure what the reviewer Rosi Bohabot is referring to stating that there are only 50 slots. I find that there are plenty of pockets for the 50 state quarters from each mint; 200 as stated in the description.

Out of the sixty-five tricks listed in the book, I found about ten that were worth attempting. I like to do tricks on a spur of the moment with a borrowed deck, and this book added very little to my repetoire. There are too many tricks which need a setup or require you to mark cards beforehand. Also, alot of the tricks have too many steps (your audience will get bored, just as mine did). My final say is don't buy this book, it's not worth it; get a good sleight-of-hand video instead.

Don't know why anyone would have trouble understanding or using the effects in this book. Frankly, with a little bit of presentation and performance, these are some nice workers. Magicians who perform for a living know Fulves' material is strong. True, his style is a bit dry, but no problem for someone with good reading skils.

This is a very good book for anyone who does not want to put in the hours it takes to become a sleight-of-hand card magician. Many of the effects in this book come from a magazine that was published by the author, which is considered one of the greatest sources for magical material ever!
Many of the effects in the book require no skill, just a careful management of your audience and attention to detail. Most will fool knowledgable magicians, especially those who depend on sleights and not mathematics.
An excellent book for a beginning magician, but not for those who are under 12, since most of the material requires strict adherence to directions.
Check out the last chapter for some excellent routines that duplicate sleight-of-hand magic, but don't use it.

Wow, what i surprise that these books are still in print. And even more, other people have given other Karl Fulves books a rating of 5 stars. Here is why i don't like any of Fulves Self working books:

1. Way to expensive for tiny books with bad material. these cost 6 dollars for 128 pages while the superb book MOdern coin magic costs only 10 with 320 pages of priceless information.

2. Most importantly, the tricks aren't very good. My mom bought 5 of the self-working books so i understand very well what these books are like. I have spent days on some of Fulves card tricks reading through them and then performing them to many people. Either everyone figured them out or else the tricks were mathematical in which the audience wouldn't care. Magic tricks need to be impossible, magical which decieves the eyes. Mathematical tricks are NOT atall magical. It seems like all the tricks are really old out dated tricks just so that the author could say that this trick is in print for the first time. The best tricks are however classics, in which many books have these. I felt like Dover books were really awful after reading these books until i bought Modern coin magic, a fantastic book in which the tricks are both magical and fool people. All of my self working books where left in Madagscar when i moved. Before i didn't like card tricks because of this book until a friend showed me some sleight of hand. I never got one good trick out of 5 books by Karl Fulves, except for the cups and balls. 3. Self working tricks in general don't work. In self working, there aren't any sleights or gimmicks. Time has shown that the classic, or the best tricks that have proven the test of time, have either for the most part sleights or gimmichs and in the most part are not self working. By not including classics inorder to be origional, the book contains bad tricks. 4. Get the royal road in card magic, Mark wilson cyclopedia of magic, and bobo's modern coin magic for great classic tricks and card tricks that have stood the test of time which proffessionals use. Hope this helps.