Collecting World Coins: A Century of Circulating Issues 1901 - Present (Collecting World Coins, 9th ed)

Rating:
Summary: excellent reference to 20th century world coins
Review: Adequate-resolution black-and-white photographs of the vast majority (if not all) of the 20th century world circulation business-strike coinage.

Especially historically accurate. For example Germany is divided into the coinage of various coin-minting units of government over its tumultuous and shattered 20th-century history: Anhalt-Dessau, Baden, Bavaria, Bremen, Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Hamburg, Hesse-Darmstadt, Lippe-Detmold, Lubeck, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, Prussia, Reuss-Obergreiz, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenbach, Saxony, Schaumburg-Lippe, Waldeck-Pyrmont, Wurttemberg, German Empire (1871-1918), Weimar Republic (1919-1933), Third Reich (1933-1945), Federal Republic of Germany (West & unified) (1945-present), Saarland (1945-1957), and German Democratic Republic (East)(1945-1990). I consider that nation-state categorization alone impressive and intimate knowledge of coinage production in Germany, let alone the over-300 coin types documented among all of those coin-producing governments. Similar detail is taken with a multitude of other countries worldwide, with whose history I am less familiar.

Number of coins produced each year are given as are prices for typically 3 grades: very fine, extremely fine, and uncirculated.

The only way that Kraus could "improve" this book is to release a 19th century edition, an 18th century edition, a 17th century edition, and so forth, because it is disappointing to have the history truncated at 1901. Although I am not aware of such per-century editions slicing horizontally across the world, Krause has produced vertical slices by country, such as the history of German coins spanning multiple centuries, which of course overlaps in the 20th century with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Covers 330 coin-issuing countries and states
Review: Chester Krause, et.al.'s Collecting World Coins widens the focus to world coins from 1901 to the present, appearing in its updated 9th edition to cover 330 coin-issuing countries and states. Over 20,000 coins are listed by date and valued in up to four grade levels. The black and white coin photos here are even more extensive and essential for identification.

Rating:
Summary: For the Serious Collector
Review: This book, like the Standard Catalog of World coins (1901-present) also by Krause et al, contains all you need to identify and price nearly every coin from every nation minted since 1901. The book begins with an identification guide containing images of common themes on each nation's coins (for example, the eagle on Egypt's coins), a chart/list of the various number systems (so you can read the denominations and dates on Arabic, Chinese/Japanese/Korean, Hebrew, and Thai coins, just to name a few), and a Hejira-Christian date chart (important for dating Arabic coins).

The main section of the book is organized first by country, then by era/dynasty, next by denomination (lowest to highest), and last by style (with KM number). Within each style are a list of dates, mintages, and prices at various conditions.

The main differences between this book and Standard Catalog of World Coins appear to be: (1) this book is half the thickness and half the weight, (2) this book is printed on higher-quality paper, and (3) this book doesn't contain as many coins that never went into circulation (commemoratives, etc.). So one might say that this book is aimed toward the collector, while the Standard Catalog is geared more toward the dealer.