Coin Collecting Reference Books

If you want to get really technical, Germany as a country did not really exist until the 20th century, namely the Weimar Republic after WWI. But rather then German, German states should be used prior to that. See the different countries:

I just got my hands on another set of these. Please send me a note if you're looking to acquire it for your library on Spanish Colonials.

Stan said:



the standard reference of silver talers (and halfs and quarters) from both the Northern Provinces (Dutch Republic) and Southern Provinces (Spanish Netherlands) between ±1550 and 1800 is:

A. Delmonte: "The silver Benelux"
Jacques Schulman N.V.; 1st Edition edition (1967)




not cheap but a high quality work with very accurate and reliable description of types, years and variants (some photographed)
this catalog is the reference (DELM number) for all pieces from this area and period, always used in auctions

as Bob commented for another high quality book mentioned above:
also this book is a high quality reference with a scale of rarity - not prices.

also a nice complementary book to the catalogs of coins from Belgium and Holland from after 1800 (=> e.g. see post from Aernout)

I grew up near Amsterdam, where Jacques Schulman had his office (Keizersgracht 448); as a child-collector I remember the fantastic moments when Mr Schulman himself had a bit of free time to show the preparation of this great book. In those days every coin of any significance went through the hands of a few experts, starting with Jacques Schulman himself the third generation head of a family business in numismatics
Moreover, most rare coins had a clear "pedigree" of ownership. The numismatic world was much smaller than today. Slabbing did not exist: you had to feel the coin in your hand, so that you could feel the piece was all right. Sadly, this time had passed.

Thanks, swamperbob for a great thread, this is a good beginning to protect coins with real numismatic interest against a growing storm of fraudulent material

Big Science is has moved towards huge inventories of stars in the universe; of the sequence of millions of genes - from microbial to human; of polymorphisms in the genomes of many thousands of individuals. Enormous amounts of data. That can be stored and can be made public.

Would numismatics benefit from a scientific approach (systematic and reproducible) aiming for a data base with relevant information about all known genuine pieces? Perhaps unrealistic for practical reasons. But maybe it can be organized and perhaps sufficient funding can be found.

At least in theory, such virtual repository of original coins seems to me more of a finite goal than an inventory of present and future fraudulent pieces that become better as technology and knowledge increase.

If you are interested in Grand Duchy of Finland coins and varietys there are atleast two books that you can use.

First is Nilov - Gladtsyn - Finnish coin variants 1864-1917
This book has both english and russian text.




Secon book is Ismo Parikka Finnish coin variants 1864-2001

This book also includes varietys for independence 1918-2001 markka coins but it is written only in Finnish.



Both these books include price list with number codes that you can use to get idea how much those varietys are worth.

Volvicch - now that is a great find! Where did you manage to find a copy and how much did it set you back?

Been waiting for this for a couple weeks now and it finally arrived. This will supplement my Gilboy's "The Milled Columnarios of Central and South America: Spanish American Pillar Coinage, 1732 to 1772" and with a special auction coming up in February with 521 pillar dollar lots, it will come in very handy. Pillar dollar for scale :)








Apologies in advance for the bad photos :)

@ Cableguy815: It is, I'm very happy with it. And it's only 36 dollars :)