Books to buy?

[AaaGee]

Afternoon all.

Still have some massive gaps in my PM knowledge and feeling its time to buy a book or 2 on the subject. Mainly sovereigns but books on general precious metal coinage of interest too. I think it would help me understand some of the topics on the forum more. 

Nothing too heavy. Just a good book or 2 to help me along my way.

What do you recommend?

 

AaaGee

Edited August 19, 2023 by AaaGee
Spelling

[Orpster]

The Gold Sovereign Series by Michael A Marsh (you want the 2021 edition)
Coins of England & the UK, standard catalogue of British coins Pre-Decimal Issue by Spink (2023 Edition)

[AaaGee]

Thanks Orpster. Just ordered the 2021 The Gold  Sovereign Series book.

Gaping holes in my sovereign knowledge that dont help when they come up for sale.

Appreciated, thanks again 👍

[Britannia47]

@AaaGee It may take time to build up your own library of reference books. But in the meantime you can access the knowledge base of most dealers to learn more, especially sovereigns, eg Chards or AllGold. 

However, there is a gold-mine (‘Scuse the pun!) of information here on TSF from previous topics and posts if you can find them!  The community SEARCH is not the greatest search engine IMO, but the answers to all the Newbee  questions asked over and over again can be found with a bit of effort.  Anyway the Marsh books are a good start…👍

 

 

 

[JamesH]

3 hours ago, Orpster said:

The Gold Sovereign Series by Michael A Marsh (you want the 2021 edition)
Coins of England & the UK, standard catalogue of British coins Pre-Decimal Issue by Spink (2023 Edition)

Exactly the same two that were recommended to me and they’re great! Refer to them loads when looking to buy and just lovely chunky books to get stuck into 👍🏼

[ZRPMs]

The Gold Sovereign Series by Michael A Marsh 2021 (revised by Steve Hill) is an excellent book. Having said that. I do love my sovereigns.

[dicker]

I would strongly suggest getting a copy of the Bentley Collection Auction catalogues (3 of them)..

I have PDF's if you cant find them online. 

Best

Dicker

[AaaGee]

46 minutes ago, dicker said:

I would strongly suggest getting a copy of the Bentley Collection Auction catalogues (3 of them)..

I have PDF's if you cant find them online. 

Best

Dicker

Thanks. I'll take a look 👍

[Booky586]

All the above, especially The Gold Sovereign by Marsh, that has to be top of any list.

These are great references too, but they're specifically about the 1887 Jubilee Head issues:

[Silverlocks]

On 19/08/2023 at 12:59, AaaGee said:

Afternoon all.

Still have some massive gaps in my PM knowledge and feeling its time to buy a book or 2 on the subject. Mainly sovereigns but books on general precious metal coinage of interest too. I think it would help me understand some of the topics on the forum more. 

Nothing too heavy. Just a good book or 2 to help me along my way.

What do you recommend?

 

AaaGee

Allen, Grading British Coins.  Pics of every obverse and reverse design on British coins from the late 18th century through to about 1970, in each of the major grades F, VF, EF etc.  Between that, Marsh and a current edition of Spink, that's the basic documentation to get a handle on sovereigns.

Maybe one of the world coins books - Krause (Standard catalogue of world gold coins) or one of its successor editions.  Maybe Schlumberger (out of print but readily available secondhand) or Freidburg & Freidburg - all catalogues of European or world gold.  There are also similar books on silver coins.

Maybe the PCGS grading guide if you're into American coins.

[iacabu]

Agree with Spink and Marsh. 

Careful if purchasing the Grading British Coins book as they do a copy in black and white. I ordered the Kindle version in colour for that reason. You also get the benefit of being able to zoom in on the pictures to a certain extent. 

I also like the Coin Yearbook. I only got it as part of a Chards mystery box, but it's been helpful in some instances and has mintage listed too. 

[Coverte]

On 19/08/2023 at 13:58, Orpster said:

The Gold Sovereign Series by Michael A Marsh (you want the 2021 edition)
 

There was a copy of this along with a coin in an auction quite recently, not 2021, but useful to that winner I imagine, none the less.

[billp]

Why Gold ? Why Now ? by E.B Tucker - good knowledge and a light read