Coins Books

While much of what this Mr. Garrett writes can be helpful to someone new to the hobby of metal detecting (such as learning how to pinpoint targets, and how to dig for coins), this book must be read with these things in mind:
1) It is heavily biased since it is written by Charles Garrett of Garrett metal detectors. He neglects to mention or picture other metal detecor brands.
2) Mr. Garrett's discussion on detector technology is largely obsolete.
3) Many of the claims presented in the book are highly sensationalized and idealistic. Sure, the stories about people finding gold coins and hoards of buried coins are entertaining to read, but even my local coin dealer who sells coin detectors says he has never heard of anyone finding such items.
4) This book does not give a well-rounded view of the metal detecting hobby. Mr. Garrett only emphasizes the good and the sensational, making it sound like anyone can make a lot of money metal detecting coins. This is just not the case unless you make metal detecting your part-time job. To find the good coins, you will have to spend a great deal of time researching (which Mr. Garrett mentions) and even then, you will have to dig a lot of trash. You can spend three hours in a field and all you find is a button and a few current coins. Garret's book gives you the impression that gold coins are buried right in your backyard. This is simply not true. Avoid this book, as it is nothing more than an elaborate Garrett sales brochure.

This is a great book which got me started in metal detecting. It is extremely helpful, and will motivate treasure hunters by giving ideas on new places to hunt, it is also written very well and is easy to understand. The only drawback is that like most Garrett texts it promotes Charles Garrett's personal brand of metal detector

While much of what this Mr. Garrett writes can be helpful to someone new to the hobby of metal detecting (such as learning how to pinpoint targets, and how to dig for coins), this book must be read with these things in mind:
1) It is heavily biased since it is written by Charles Garrett of Garrett metal detectors. He neglects to mention or picture other metal detecor brands.
2) Mr. Garrett's discussion on detector technology is largely obsolete.
3) Many of the claims presented in the book are highly sensationalized and idealistic. Sure, the stories about people finding gold coins and hoards of buried coins are entertaining to read, but even my local coin dealer who sells coin detectors says he has never heard of anyone finding such items.
4) This book does not give a well-rounded view of the metal detecting hobby. Mr. Garrett only emphasizes the good and the sensational, making it sound like anyone can make a lot of money metal detecting coins. This is just not the case unless you make metal detecting your part-time job. To find the good coins, you will have to spend a great deal of time researching (which Mr. Garrett mentions) and even then, you will have to dig a lot of trash. You can spend three hours in a field and all you find is a button and a few current coins. Garret's book gives you the impression that gold coins are buried right in your backyard. This is simply not true. Avoid this book, as it is nothing more than an elaborate Garrett sales brochure.

Beginner or experienced, you will love this book! The New Successful Coin Hunting is a modern version of Garrett's previous book "Successful Coin Hunting". The New version gives you ideas where to hunt, how to hunt, dig, clean, and even how to choose the right metal detector! It even has information on the newer computerized detectors. This is the book you want to take out on the 'field' with you when you hunt. Happy hunting!

This book contains no photographs, no inscriptions in Arabic script (just sort of Latin letters transliteration, so one does not need any Qufic or Nastaliq understanding for this booklet), no translations, of course, no prices, nothing, but dry and very brief verbal description of hundreds of 'virtual' coins. By its structure and contents the book resembles an inventary journal of a warehouse. I have no guess how this book can be helpful to anybody, novice or experienced...
I also really cannot comprehend how this book could get 5-star reviews from some other reviewers - I would seriously question the integrity of their judgement!
IMHO, this book is a complete waste of money and is good at most for paper recycling.

This book is designed for the oriental numismatist that has accomplished a basic understanding of kufic, naskh, and nastaliq. The price references are most valuable. Novice Islamic coin collectors should master Plant, ARABIC COINS AND HOW TO READ THEM or Ballantyne, PERSIAN CALLIGRAPHY.

For those who can read the inscriptions, this book has a wealth of information about the many types of Islamic coins and their issuers. A twelve page introduction provides an overview. But there are no photographs and no transcriptions of the Arabic writing. The book is, in the author's own words, "altogether worthless as an identification guide...." So if you happen to have some of those coins with mysterious writing on both sides and are just looking for help identifying them, don't waste your money here.

Practical, straitlaced Jessie Needham wished she could forget the wildly passionate affair she'd shared with Nick Carlucci--but she was having Nick's baby. She could handle being a single mom--but didn't every child need a daddy?

Still, with Nick far away, Jessie could control her memories of long summer nights and melting kisses. Keeping her secret seemed safe--right up until she opened her door and found Nick on the other side...

Since this is the last book of the Three Coins in a Fountain series it sort of ties everything up from the first two books. Whatever you do don't read this book first. Start with If Wishes Were... Husbands because it's the first book but second best. The best book of the series is If Wishes Were... Weddings because that book is actually romantic and funny at the same time.
About this book though, I found Jessie the least likable female lead of the three women. Where Gina had sass and Libby was the girl next door, Jessie was down right annoying at times. The best character in the book was Nick's sister and I was hoping that she would knock some sense into Nick and Jessie literally but I had to settle on her giving out advice. All in all the previous two books were better.

Back Cover description: JESSIE, GINA, LIBBY. THREE WOMEN, THREE WISHES, THREE COINS IN A FOUNTAIN! Practical, straitlaced Jessie Needham wished she could forget the wildly passionate affair she'd shared with Nick Carlucci--but she was having Nick's baby. She could handle being a single mom--but didn't every child need a daddy? Still, with Nick far away, Jessie could control her memories of long summer nights and melting kisses. Keeping her secret seemed safe--right up until she opened her door and found Nick on the other side...

I wasn't crazy about the scene in Nick's bedroom where all three women show up. If you can get over the fact that this guy is a stereotype for a "woman in every port", you might like his character, I wasn't happy with it. When will this guy grow up? He sort of grows on you, and by the end they live happily ever after, but...would you trust him?

The book's title might cause you to be disappointed if you're looking for a complete resource on slot machines. There is a chapter devoted to them, but this book is not a half slot machines, half coin-op guide as the title suggests. My guess would be that slot machine collecting was at a peak when this book came out and the book was titled to grab attention.
A more appropriate title might have been "History of Coin-Op Games including Slot Machines".

Besides that, if you want a mini-history of these machines along with some nice color pictures, this book is for you. Time period covered is 1889 to 1988.

There are 9 chapters covering Penny Arcade Machines, Baseball Machines, Gun Games, Bowling Machines, Pinball Machines, One-Armed Bandits, Novelty Arcade Games (part 1), Novelty Arcade Games (part 2) and Owning Your Own.., along with an author's introduction and an index which directs you to every page a particular game is mentioned or a picture is located.

Well written book with lots of pictures to remind you of times past and games you have long forgotten about. If you're over thirty, you will have many "oh, I remember playing THAT one" moments.

You'll be glad you added this one to your game-room collection.

the title starts with slot machines. well there's only ten pictures of slot machines and three are blurry and two are drawings.i went through it in two minutes. don't buy for the slot machine part.

Kurtz had done a beautiful job documenting many of the other arcade machines. Not slots, not pins (though both are covered) but the fortune tellers, strength testers, helicopter simulators, safe-cracking games, baseballs and bowlers that were in the rear corners of the arcades of my boyhood.

The photography is first rate. He's gone to a lot of trouble to light and photograph terrific examples. There's the usual brochure copy as well. The copy is well written, but this book is really about the pictures and captions.

A great item for your gameroom!

The first two editions of this catalog received less than favorable reviews, so I waited until the third edition to buy one hoping that the bugs would be worked out. The listings for most countries are more current in that coins up into 2007 are included, which is reasonable for a 2009 edition that had to be printed in early 2008 or earlier. Older editions often were three to five years behind. On the down side, the catalog still includes major problems: LARGE numbers of coins for most countries are listed without pictures (80% or more for some smaller countries), some catalog numbers are different than those in earlier editions, some coin descriptions do not match the coins pictured (which is correct, the description or the picture???), some descriptions do not list the subject of the coin (especially a problems with some poor pictures), some coins are listed more than once with different catalog numbers (if all coins had pictures, this problem would be more obvious). The listed coin values are a mixed bag. Most of the values for newer commemoratives look like full retail as issued by the mints or their distributors. Values for coins from countries that are hot right now are a joke, but predicting market swings is beyond the scope of any catalog. Use the values as guides to approximate values and not the actual values.

With all the problems, this catalog (and the others in the series) remain the most comprehensive source of information available on world coins. The specialty collector can find better catalogs--usually at much higher prices. The more general collector or novice should use this catalog, if for no other reason than using the catalog numbers for record keeping and communicating with other collectors or dealers. The publisher could do a great service to the hobby by fixing the problems, especially adding pictures for ALL of the coins.

With every passing year the edition of a separate 21st century coin catalog becomes more justified. Any coin collector can easily list a number of countries which do their best to fill the volume with products of their mints and national banks. China and France alone add at least two to four pages yearly, Russia and Poland are not far behind. It does make sense to produce this catalog and yet there are doubts.
The 2009 edition brings another selection of new commemoratives plus a handful of fairly interesting regular coins but somehow I am still unconvinced that there were credible reasons for splitting the 1900+ volume into two - the 20th and the 21st century (apart from making more money on collectors ;) If you could remove "patterns etc." sections - most of which interest less than a hundred people all around the world - the 20th and the 21st century catalogs could still easily be produced as a single volume.
The volume seems to have become too big to handle for its editors. Several times the same coins are listed twice (Bangladesh 2 taka is the first to come to mind) with minute differences in descriptions as if there were differences between two coins. It seems nobody had the strength to edit the whole volume carefully...
In short - if you are seriously interested in commemorative world issues, this is your book. You simply must buy it as the only other choice is checking various internet sites. Yet if your interests are more moderate getting a new edition every two or three years should be enough.

As the author states, this is not meant to be a comprehensive volume. The field of ancient coins from non-classical cultures is so wide, that I think it is wonderful that someone took the time to assemble an overview that helps the beginner to start recognizing types, and then points them in the right direction. This is especially useful in a field where references for very narrow segment of the coinage are hard to find, and most often very expensive. I myself have invested in a book or two that sounded as if it would carry my field of interest--only to leave me out in the cold, with a very empty wallet!

I only wish that Wayne Sayles could continue this series to cover coinage from India, Ceylon/Sri Lanka, and Asia as well. An excellent book for those new to the field, or looking to expand their ancient coin collecting interests outside the Classical World.

I have bought and read almost all of the books in this series and definitely this is the one that satisfied me the least. In trying to squeeze too many cultures living in too broad of a time frame in just one regular sized book, the reader is just confused on the relation between the choices of cultures displayed. Most of the individual sections are just too short to show the coinage and much less the history of these peoples. One should approach this book as a long, long magazine article that presents some non classical cultures and just that. It is not even a book, as the others in the series are, that entices you to look deeper into the bibliography and that at least gives you the 'big picture'. This book only succeeds in confusing and making the coinage of those already almost unknown cultures a little bit more obscure.

I just received mine and went to double check after reading the first review and the spelling is correct. Amazon should probably update the picture (I'll try to submit/post one :)). Otherwise the poster is great - thick, hi-gloss heavy poster paper.

I wanted to order this chart for my classroom. It looked like a clear, well-organized reference for kids... until I noticed that the word "nickel" is misspelled. That is totally unacceptable!

A confession: I don't owe this book and I have not even seen it. But, I was stupid enough to purchase another book of Albumn: "Checklist of Islamic coins" which really and frankly was not worth a broken penny. What raised the alarm is the fact that both that book and this book were given a 5-star review by someone "joel417". His review of "Checklist" is not trustworthy and does not adhere to the facts, to say the least.
So, be warned, and don't take his reviews for the face value !

This compilation should assist Oriental numismatists in identifying abstruse pieces. This reference tool is valuable to both the scholar and layman. This work will give this important collection much more visibility.

This book is poorly researched. Its missing The Air Crew Europe Star from WW2- a puzzling omission being its the rarest of all the WW2 Stars. Colour pictures of the Ribands is not good- dont rely on these colours!. Not enough background on the medals and what the colours on the Ribands represent. No mention as to why there are only 2 WW1 stars (they were not issued after 1915 as the soldiers were all considered to be 'conscripts' and not worthy of a Star) etc. A very basic book- for raw beginners only!

Medal collectors and military history enthusiasts will find this book to be a useful source of reference. It describes most of the British Army Campaign Medals which were struck and issued between 1793 and the present and provides an interesting synopsis of the campaigns which were fought and the histories associated with each medal. Finally the book is nicely illustrated and contains photographs of some very fine specimens. A first class buy.

This book is for the beginning collector. If you want detail do not buy. Has general information only.

Not the last word in references - anyone looking for a detailed guide in distinguishing fakes would be better off with a more detailed book, or even Cyrus Lee's SOLDAT books which give step by step procedures.

This book is a very handy and easy to use reference with a bare bones history of the awards and quality pictures of them. No frills; very brief notes on the number of awards, very brief descriptions of how they were won, but no examples of citations or specific details in what it took to be awarded some of them.

Conveniently divided into sections dealing with the seperate services, this will serve as a quick reference to unfamiliar decorations as well as provide the bare essentials on dates of introduction and conditions of award. Some notes on presentation cases and awards documents also.