Gold Coins of the World, 10th edition

Book excerpt: The tenth edition of Gold Coins of the World expands on its predecessor, digging more deeply into new areas of collector interest, and expanding many sections. From the coins of Ancient Greece, Rome, and the Byzantine Empire, and from Afghanistan through Zanzibar, it includes the addition of many new discoveries for dozens of countries. From the 384 pages of the 1958 edition, the work has expanded to 852 pages, which have been completely revised and updated. The authors have listed more than 22,000 coin types, which are illustrated with more than 8,500 photos—now, for the first time, each one of them in color. Each country’s section includes tables of weight and fineness. The market valuations are extensively revised to reflect both the higher price of gold as well as the skyrocketing demand for numismatic rarities. Valuations are now provided, for the first time, in up to three states of preservation. Many of the prices, especially for great rarities and coins in higher grades, have at least doubled. In fact, as collectors recognize the scarcity of coins in the highest states of preservation, the premium for such coins relative to lower-graded ones is escalating beyond traditional proportions. The coinage of India and the Islamic world, long dismissed by western collectors as difficult to decipher, unimportant, and lacking in value, is now the subject of intense interest, and has shown some of the most dramatic increases of all. The reader will also find a useful directory of the world’s leading gold-coin dealers and auction houses. For the numismatist, banker, economist, historian, or institution of higher learning, the tenth edition of Gold Coins of the World is a book for every library, public and private.