Coins Books

I bought these to hold a few of the 50 state quarters. Unfortunately, about half of the tubes in the package have a slight taper towards the bottom. This taper prevents "new" quarters from sitting in the bottom and you lose about 2 to 6 quarters' capacity in the tube. Oddly, I found that some of the older (as in well-circulated) quarters dropped all the way down to the bottom. But typically coin collectors prefer the less circulated varieties and thus will have to settle for less-than-maximum capacity on some of the storage tubes. I bought a few extras and just set those that are tapered to the side - I'll deal with them later as necessary.

The book does as it says: it teaches you to read and date Roman Imperial coins. Features include an explanation of denominations and inscriptions, a table of names on coins relating to names in history books, common reverse figures, mint marks and a list of all emperors with a paragraph on their life and a picture of one of their coins. Two tables on dating and a bibliography round out this book. Not a catalog, not for advanced collectors, fun for anyone else, including non-collectors who have an interest in ancient artifacts.

The folder that you put the quarters into only shows one side of the quarters. For these new quarters, I wanted to be able to see both sides of the quarters. Whitman's other binder is much better.

I was awaiting a good compilation of pictures showing the divine name Jehovah on coins.
But there is all but uninteresting text. The few pictures at the end of the book are pityfull.

I have been collecting hammered aluminum for many years and can honestly say that this is the worst book that I have ever seen on the subject. It is riddled with inaccuracies of fact and misrepresentations. I could write a book on the inaccuracies found in this book. If you do anything more than look at the pictures, you will likely not learn much. His research techniques were useless at best. This book is full of fairy tales!

With the advantage of hindsight and experience, I have to withdraw my earlier favorable comments. I agree with the negative comments of other reviewers. The one that stated in effect that you are in trouble if you look beyond the pictures is probably right on target. Mr. Grist should significantly upgrade his research, quality of illustrations of marks, provide time frames for marks, get to know "Rodney Kent" better and update his prices. A section on manufacturing methods to distinguish between hand hammered and other would be useful.

I received this book as a gift. I have some hammered aluminum and thought this book would be useful to help me learn more. I was wrong, indeed! This book has decent pictures and that is all. There is absolutely no timeline for markings to help someone establish when a piece was made. There is no regard to what is 'rare'. There is also no information given on what the numbering system for certain makers means. How many types of things did Rodney Kent make, for example. I have found this book of little help with my collection.

This book has come under much criticism from expert, professional, and seasoned collectors. Much of this criticism is justified from their point of view. However, for the novice or one just getting started collecting hammered aluminum it is a valuable tool. I am novice collector who can't afford to maintain a large research library on hammered aluminum. I find this book a valuable aid when shopping for aluminum. The Introduction and maker's marks are an asset. I only wish that some dates or periods of time could have been listed under the marks. Keep in mind that the values listed in the book are relative. At this point the values are highly understated. If you can find quality pieces at or beldow the values stated in this book, you found a bargain!

Grist' book has been the subject of much discussion among aluminum collectors and little of the comment has been favorable. Concerns have been raised regarding the organization and scholarship. I do not recommend this book, and would recommend Woodard's aluminum books as better and more thorough general guides which are also listed by Amazon.

The book seems incomplete and inaccurate..Be *very* careful if you're evaluating coins with this book alone. In many *many* cases of world coins that have both common varieties and rare, valueble varieties, this book lists only the most common variety.

If you think you are getting a bargain when you buy this book for its low price, rather than spending the big bucks and buying the Krause publications, think again. There are only 48 countries listed. If you collect Austrian coins, you are out of luck. The irony of the situation is that the single most popular coin in the world, the Maria Theresa Thaler, is not even listed in this book.

If you are a beginner and you just want a rough guide to the coins these authors consider to be popular, you might like this book, but if you are a serious collector of world coinage, look elsewhere.

Although, it is complete it is not very organized and the page numbers do correspond with the contents. If you are used to Friedberg's catalog of US Currency or some of the old Donlon catalogs you will not like this. Really needed to be proof read before printing. Had I known this I would not have purchased it!

Though there are several errors in this 2004 edition, the most outstanding and noticeable item is what's NOT included. There is absolutely no listing for any bills past 1995 issues! If the newer, larger portrait bills intrigued you enough to start collecting -- you'll find nothing about them. Whether you're a beginning collector or been at it a while, this book is a must SKIP. Two days after I bought it and made some initial notations in it, I tossed it into the trash. If I could give "0" stars or a negative, I would. Before you buy any guide or reference book, look through it to be sure it has what you're looking for!

I agree with Kevin Pastor! I thought this book would be informative re: Barber dimes by year from 1892 to 1916! What a joke! All it had was die varieties of which most people aren't really that interested in anyway!
I think this book should be pulled because of its misleading title! Sign me disgusted!

Like the so called Barber quarter complete guide by this author, again another major disappointment. this book cover only die variations and errors. Nothing here about Barber dime populations, rarity or valuations of the 'Regular' series.
Don't wate your money or time unless you are a variety or error collector.

This book is very basic information for coins. It does not give enough detail about mint conditions, and stops recording coins at the late 80's and early 90's. This book will in no way help me to understand the value of my coins or the terms and language of coin values and their sellers.

I am not rating the quality of the book but rather the audacity of the seller. My husband considers this book the "bible" for collecting British medals and he strongly recommends it to any researcher or collector. (He has wanted it since publication but the price was always a deterrent.) However today he went online to Amazon's UK website and bought the same 2006 edition for 80.75 GBP with only 6.95 GBP for shipping. That equals out to approximately 155 USD. This seller wants over 150 dollars more for the same book! Use Amazon UK if you want this book. You login in the same and the shipping was much more reasonable than I expected. I would like to see Amazon in the US bring over more British books. It would be much more convenient and I believe that customers would like to purchase them, as long as the exchange rate is valid!