The Official Price Guide to Mint Errors, 6th Edition (Official Price Guide to Mint Errors)

Rating:
Summary: There are better books on the subject
Review: I didn't care for this book for a few reasons. First, this really isn't a price book. Sure it gives very general prices but nothing really pinned down. Second, this book is very hard to just look up a specific coin. The book is not very well aranged. This would be a good book if you just wanted to know the different varieties and how they were made. So if that's what you want then that's what you will get. As far as a price guide forget it doesn't tell me much about the value of a coin, especially with no specific year of coin or denomination.

Rating:
Summary: There are better books on the subject
Review: I didn't care for this book for a few reasons. First, this really isn't a price book. Sure it gives very general prices but nothing really pinned down. Second, this book is very hard to just look up a specific coin. The book is not very well aranged. This would be a good book if you just wanted to know the different varieties and how they were made. So if that's what you want then that's what you will get. As far as a price guide forget it doesn't tell me much about the value of a coin, especially with no specific year of coin or denomination.

Rating:
Summary: 4 Stars but only because of its explication of rating system
Review: The review below lodges some valid and important complaints. To wit, this book really is not a price guide as such as the 'guidance' is so broad as to be meaningless. Also, it is quite difficult to look up specific varieties such as the one you may be holding in your grimy little paw, and it doesn't give enough up to date information on the populations of various errors. Having said that, it is one of those I believe any nonprofessional coin collector ... coin scout should have for the following reasons: Alan Herbert, the author does give examples of the broad panoply of mint errors that are out there, with description, level of rarity and, usually, a photgraph for visual reference. More importantly, the book includes a complete description of the rating system and all of the nomenclature surrounding the rating and identifying of various errors. This information alone makes this book worthy of purchase. There is other information here too, such as a simple, lucid and photographically enhanced description of the entire minting process that will definitely help you to get your head around the world of error coins. To be sure, this book is deeply flawed and on that basis should probably draw only three stars, but I've looked and there just isn't that much literature on error coins out there for the casual coin collector. So, if you want to fill out your knowledge of error coins but aren't a hardcore error hound, go ahead and get this book. You won't be sorry, I'm sure (possibly a little disappointed though).

Rating:
Summary: 4 Stars but only because of its explication of rating system
Review: The review below lodges some valid and important complaints. To wit, this book really is not a price guide as such as the 'guidance' is so broad as to be meaningless. Also, it is quite difficult to look up specific varieties such as the one you may be holding in your grimy little paw, and it doesn't give enough up to date information on the populations of various errors. Having said that, it is one of those I believe any nonprofessional coin collector ... coin scout should have for the following reasons: Alan Herbert, the author does give examples of the broad panoply of mint errors that are out there, with description, level of rarity and, usually, a photgraph for visual reference. More importantly, the book includes a complete description of the rating system and all of the nomenclature surrounding the rating and identifying of various errors. This information alone makes this book worthy of purchase. There is other information here too, such as a simple, lucid and photographically enhanced description of the entire minting process that will definitely help you to get your head around the world of error coins. To be sure, this book is deeply flawed and on that basis should probably draw only three stars, but I've looked and there just isn't that much literature on error coins out there for the casual coin collector. So, if you want to fill out your knowledge of error coins but aren't a hardcore error hound, go ahead and get this book. You won't be sorry, I'm sure (possibly a little disappointed though).