Books or Internet.

[SamThomasldn]

Morning all!

First proper post, so apologies if this is the wrong section. Also apologies if this topic has been posted before, but I can't find via search. 

I'm looking for an easy to reach for reference source, for mainly pre-decimal coins. I've read up about some reputable starter material such as 'Coins of England' and 'Coin yearbook 2024'

Are these still worth buying as hard copy books or is everything I'd need to find already copied online? 

Other recommendations are very much welcome!

Thanks 

[Petra]

Hi there

welcome to the forum😮

Internet great for a quick search, however, I’m a book type of person. A wide variety of quite famous books, particularly for sovereigns. I have the Coins of England books pre and post decimal. Would recommend the pre decimal book, it’s great. Once you have it you can just keep referring back to it. Otherwise, just have a trawl through internet and find another. Sure you will get some more recommendations on here.

👍👍

[Orpster]

Nuff said  

[sovereignsteve]

You really need both. Some of the older edition books will be a little out of date but there are some gems of knowledge in them.

There have been a number of threads on this forum over the years with some good recommendations so a quick forum search should find you some details to go at.

[Petra]

48 minutes ago, Orpster said:

Nuff said  

👍😂

[SamThomasldn]

2 hours ago, Orpster said:

Nuff said  

Nice, this looks like it could be quite comprehensive 😅

Thanks for the replies. Will have a look in my local waterstones today!

 

[Orpster]

2 minutes ago, SamThomasldn said:

Nice, this looks like it could be quite comprehensive 😅

Thanks for the replies. Will have a look in my local waterstones today!

 

If you have an interest in a particular monarch or period it is often worth looking for auction catalogues for some of the signature auctions, or even just to pick up knowledge in general

This is a link to Baldwins back catalogues to start you off

https://www.baldwin.co.uk/auction-archive/

I would suggest starting with Auction 73, 76 & 79 which are the Bentley collection, few auction catalogues provide as much free information as this one, I liked it that much I actually bought all three parts of the catalogue in physical form.  The best ones to download for a read are the named ones but I will just pick one at random sometimes, like a lucky dip.  Can be hit and miss as they are not all coin auctions  

 

 

[SidS]

If you want a book full of info pick up a Coincraft 2000 catalogue - Coins of England (ignore the prices as they're well out of date) but the catalogue is a wealth of information. It's the perfect blend of accessible information, not too academic but way more info than say a Spink catalogue. Spink is better for prices.

[AdamDutton]

For Coins that more niche and specialised you can always look at numista for previous auction data. 

Another alternative for less niche coins is using previous ebay auction price and buy it now data. You can always extract the mean from that. 

Those 2 alternatives are better than using any book in my opinion and is how I price my stock.   

 

[dicker]

All excellent comments here. 

I off back catalogues in pdf very useful because of their ease of search.

I do have originals of important coin auction catalogs to compliment.

My books on coins are filled with my own notes, post it pads and hand written comments that I go back to time and time again….