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Whitman Guide to Coin Collecting: An Introduction to the World of Coins
Explains how to get started in coin collecting, how to grade and price coins and how to care for your collection.
288 pages, Paperback
Published July 4, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
March 30, 2018
I have been a coin collector for over 40 years, so I am not a beginner, and I am not the intended audience for this book. I chose to read the book only because a friend of mine recently read it and I was curious to see if I agree with the information inside. I hope that does not seem arrogant. I have been a casual collector for many years, but I am by no means an expert like Kenneth Bressett.
This book calls itself a beginners guide to the world of coins, but I'm not sure that's completely accurate. When I think of a beginning coin collector, I envision an 8 to 10 year old boy or girl collecting treasures from pocket change and learning about older coins that are no longer in circulation, but this book is not written to the reading level of such a young person. I think this book might be more appropriate for the parent of such a collector, or for an adult beginning collector. However, the first four chapters do provide a lot of information that would probably be unnecessary for an adult beginner, and would be more suitable for the younger person if the book was written at a level more understandable for that person.
After the fourth chapter, I found the rest of the book very interesting and useful. I do think Bressett should have gone into much more detail about coin grading in Chapter 6, though, because I think that would be important to a beginner regardless of age. Chapter 8 is titled "Catalog of Special Coin Prices" which might be misleading as well, because it is actually has descriptions of every type of coin ever produced in the United States, for circulation or not. I think this chapter provides an excellent resource for anyone who might want to learn about a particular type of coin, or maybe put together a type set. To me, Chapter 8 alone makes this book worth reading and keeping.
This book calls itself a beginners guide to the world of coins, but I'm not sure that's completely accurate. When I think of a beginning coin collector, I envision an 8 to 10 year old boy or girl collecting treasures from pocket change and learning about older coins that are no longer in circulation, but this book is not written to the reading level of such a young person. I think this book might be more appropriate for the parent of such a collector, or for an adult beginning collector. However, the first four chapters do provide a lot of information that would probably be unnecessary for an adult beginner, and would be more suitable for the younger person if the book was written at a level more understandable for that person.
After the fourth chapter, I found the rest of the book very interesting and useful. I do think Bressett should have gone into much more detail about coin grading in Chapter 6, though, because I think that would be important to a beginner regardless of age. Chapter 8 is titled "Catalog of Special Coin Prices" which might be misleading as well, because it is actually has descriptions of every type of coin ever produced in the United States, for circulation or not. I think this chapter provides an excellent resource for anyone who might want to learn about a particular type of coin, or maybe put together a type set. To me, Chapter 8 alone makes this book worth reading and keeping.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review