There are plenty of hobbies available to a person that involve learning by doing, or that we can get better at simply by repeating some action. Numismatics really isn’t one of them. Sure, we can add more coins or currency to a collection simply by making purchases, and end up with a bigger collection. Yet if we really want to dive into our hobby in any detail, we’ll need to read up on it. There is unquestionably a good number of reference books out there, both modern and historic; so how do we pick the ones that give us the most information in the quickest amount of time? Here’s a list, one that all of us are free to debate:
1. The Red Book
Any serious collector who is unfamiliar with the annual “Red – can probably be accused of living under a rock for a very long period of time. This annual and its trademark red cover is in its 77th iteration in 2024, which makes it one of the oldest continuously printed reference books related to coin collecting. It provides prices, but to many collectors the more important information is that concerning mintages, designers and the history or context of a particular coin. The Red Book definitely heads our list.
