Best world coins books according to redditors

I will work on a write-up on my progress, and the resources I am using. To give you a heads-up, these are the books I own on them:

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Book-Cobs-4th/dp/0982081804/

https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-World-Coins-Portugal/dp/0873493257/

At the moment, I am focused on the Catholic Kings, specifically Ferdinand and Isabella 1474-1504 time period. However, I am always on the look out for any nicely struck, fully dated, silver cob that I can find.

On top of that, I have a small collection of milled 8 reales from the early 1700s-1800s.

If these are largely US coins then you should purchase a Redbook and if there are a large amount world coins a World catalog isn't a bad idea. This is also a good website to find out general prices for world coins. Selling on ebay will get you pretty decent money, but trying /r/coin4sale or /r/pmsforsale are likely to get you the best money. Anything thats extremely valuable should be sent off to a large auction company.

What ever you do don't take them to a we buy gold place

I agree; definitely not American.

As for resources, you can try to search identifying marks on the internet.


Short of that, Krauss publishes Word Coin Books that could help.

Here's an example of one:

http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-World-Coins-1701-1800/dp/0873415264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319864274&sr=8-1


They used to just have one, but now they have broken up the series into one book per century. They are extremely expensive, and I don't recommend purchasing them for the identification of one coin.


Check with your local library to see if they have a set of the books. Otherwise, consult with an online coin message board or forums to see if someone can identify it. I recommend www.cointalk.com


They have a number of people who may be able to help.


It is 99.9% likely it is worthless, but then again, you never know. Treasures turn up from time to time.


Good luck!

RIC has been out for a long time, is very detailed, but expensive. RIC VIII is the family of Constantine, so would cover the time period of Constans. Sear's millennium series is somewhat less detailed (I have at least a couple of coins which are in RIC but not in Sear), is a bit less expensive per volume (and fewer volumes), but Constans isn't covered until volume V which isn't quite out yet. It should ship this month, though.

No problem! Just put the coin into Google and that's what popped up. Might be worth picking up a physical copy if you end up using it a bit, hopefully throw the author(s) a couple of bucks:

https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-World-Coins-1701-1800/dp/0873415264

So here's the thing with references, you can either go very general or very specific. The more specific you get the more accurate you get.

The "standard" for world coins would be Krause's standard catalogue of world coins, there are several volumes and contains nearly every world coin (here is an example of one volume: https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-World-Coins-1901-2000/dp/1440246548/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497658691&sr=8-1&keywords=standard+catalog+of+world+coins )

For US coins, the standard is what's known as "The Red Book" ( https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Book-United-States-Coins/dp/0794845061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497658671&sr=8-1&keywords=red+book )

For British coins, the standard is Spink's Catalogue of English Coins for English/UK coins and Spink's Catalogue of Scottish, Irish and the Islands coin book for the remainder ( http://www.greenlightpublishing.com/PBSCCatalog.asp?CatID=1880374 ) Keep in mind that recent versions of Spink's Catalogue of English and UK coins is divided up into 2 volumes, one with pre-decimal coins (prior to 1971) and decimal coins (1971-date) and that the references for Scottish/Irish/Islands coins are not updated yearly like the English/UK coins are (I believe the most recent printing is 2015)

I currently have the Blackbook guide to world coins and has helped me identify a lot misc. coins I've picked up amazon has a 2015 version here However I'm not 100% sure that a 2016/17 version is out yet.

I don't know where you got that Amazon link but the URL appears to contain an affiliate ID so reddit's spam filter flagged it.

I agree that the Krause catalogs are pretty useful, up to a point. You can find them at the library or buy them new or used on eBay or Amazon. They don't change much from year to year so buying cheaper ones that are a couple of years old is usually fine.

Here's a non-spam link to Krause on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/2014-Standard-Catalog-World-Coins/dp/1440235678/

Krause Publications has their MASSIVE books - https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-World-Coins-1901-2000/dp/1440247978/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505178933&sr=8-1&keywords=krause+publications+world+coin+catalog

Good to have a "Standard Catalog of World Coins" book. I have an older edition, but the new one is available on Amazon here