Reading List

What Are Die Varieties?

Introduction:

Reading List

Recommended Reading for the Study of Die Varieties

General Numismatic Books

A Guidebook of United States Coins. R.S. Yeoman and Ken Bressett. 2011. Commonly known as the "Redbook" this is the book with which every numismatic library should begin.

Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. Walter Breen. 1987. The most comprehensive book on US coins available. While, it includes a lot of material not published elsewhere, it is now dated in regards to varieties on 20^th century series. Still, it is a worthwhile book for a well rounded library.

Helpful Hints for Enjoying Coin Collecting. Bill Fivaz. Great book for the beginning collector. Read it and pass it on. Or read it and read it again. Either way, it is an easy read and well worth the price.

General Variety Books

The Cherrypickers' Guide to Rare Coin Varieties. Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton. Edited by Michael L. Ellis. Fourth edition. Vol. 1, 2000; Vol. 2, 2006. This greatly expanded edition has become the Bible for the most sought after and valuable die varieties. An absolute MUST for the cherrypicker.

Official Price Guide to Minting Varieties and Errors. Alan Herbert. Seventh edition. 2007. This book should be on every error and variety collector's shelf. Secure a copy as quickly as possible and refer to it often. Technical, for the advanced collector, researcher.

Error-Variety News Classics, Books 1& II. John A. Wexler and Robert Wilharm. Reprint of the best loved error and variety publication ever. The contents are now thirty years old, but you can still feel the excitement as the modern error and variety hobby shifted into second gear.

Variety Books by Series

Cents

Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Die Varieties. Larry R. Steve and Kevin Flynn

Flying Eagle and Indian Cents. Richard Snow. 1992. The book that firmly established the importance of these two series in the heart of the variety collector.

The Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Attribution Guide, 2nd Edition, Vol. 1, 1856-1858. Richard E. Snow

The Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Attribution Guide, 2nd Edition, Vol. 2, 1859-1859. Richard E. Snow. 2003.

The Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Attribution Guide, 2nd Edition, Vol. 6, 1900-1909. Richard E. Snow.

The Fly-In Club Attribution Files. Richard Snow. 1998. No photos but plenty of descriptions and cross references.

The Classification and Value of Errors on the Lincoln Cent. Jean Cohen. 1968. Long out of print and highly valued, this is the most comprehensive book published on Lincoln cent die errors (die cracks, die chips, etc.).

The Lincoln Cent Doubled Die. John A. Wexler. 1984. Reprinted and still the most bang for your buck.

The Authoritative Reference on Lincoln Cents. John A. Wexler and Kevin Flynn. Second edition, 1996, 2009. Covers only a few more varieties than his previous work, but contains many more photos and much general information on the Lincoln cent.

The RPM Book: Second Edition; Lincoln Cents. James Wiles. 1997. The new standard for RPM collectors. Includes stage identification and a photo for every listed RPM in the CONECA files. Now superseded by the recently released E-Book. See below.

The Complete Guide to Lincoln Cents. David W. Lange. 1999. Date by date analysis for the entire series as well as a good representation of doubled dies, RPMs and cuds.

A Detailed Analysis of Lincoln Cent. Vol. 1. Billy Crawford. 2003. Doesn't contain much more that what has already been published.

The Comprehensive Guide to Lincoln Repunched Mintmark Varieties: Vol. 1: Wheat Cents 1909-1939. John A. Wexler, Brian Allen, and John W. Bordner. 2003. Detailed analysis, but contains many minor and suspicious listings.

The Lincoln Cent RPM Book Update: 1997-2002. James Wiles. 2003. Keeps the previous book updated with over 100 new listings.

The Wexler Doubled Die Files: Lincoln Cents, Vol. 1-3 (1909-1934). John A. Wexler. 2004. Very detailed analysis.

The Top 100 Lincoln Cent RPMs & OMMs. James Wiles. 2007. The first CONECA E-Book to be published. 1500+ coin photos and 10,000+ hyperlinks.

The Comprehensive Guide to Lincoln Memorial Cent Repunched Mintmark Varieties: 1959. John A. Wexler and John W. Bordner. 2010. For the collector who enjoys the minutia. With 111 listings for the 1959-D RPM, you can spend hours attributing your coins.

The Lincoln Cent RPM Book, Vol. 1 (1909-1958). Third edition. 2010. Another CONECA E-Book. A completely redone reference which includes 6500+ high digital, high magnification, color coin photos of all the 647 wheat cent RPMs listed in the CONECA files. Destined to be the first place you go for Lincoln Wheat Cent RPMs.

Getting Your Two Cents Worth. Kevin Flynn. 1994.

Longacre's Two-Cent piece – 1864 Attribution Guide. Frank Leone. In depth study of the single date. Wow!!

The Authoritative Reference on Three Cent Nickels. Edward Fletcher and Kevin Flynn.

Nickels

The Shield Five Cent Series: A Comprehensive Listing of Known Varieties. Edward L. Fletcher, Jr. 1994. Still the best book available on the series.

The Complete Guide to Shield & Liberty Head Nickels. Gloria Peters and Cindy Mohon.

Treasure Hunting Liberty Head Nickels. Kevin Flynn and Bill Van Note.

The Complete Guide to Buffalo Nickels. David W. Lange. Second edition, 2000.

Treasure Hunting Buffalo Nickels. John A. Wexler, Ron Pope, and Kevin Flynn. 1999. Care should be taken to verify the varieties attributed against this book. Many mistakes occur, especially with the RPMs.

The Jefferson Nickel RPM Book: An Attribution and Pricing Guide. James Wiles, 2000. The new Bible for Jefferson RPMs.

The Best of the Jefferson Nickel Doubled Die Varieties. John Wexler and Brian Ribar. 2^nd Edition. 2002.

The Jefferson Nickel Analyst. Bernard A. Nagengast. 2^nd Edition. 2002.

The Jefferson Nickel RPM Book Update: 2001-2002. James Wiles. 2003. Updates the previous book with over 50 new listings.

Dimes

The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Half Dimes. Al Blythe.

The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Dimes. Brian Greer

The Complete Guide to Barber Dimes. David Lawrence.

The Complete Guide to Mercury Dimes. David W. Lange. 1993.

Treasure Hunting Mercury Dimes. John Wexler and Kevin Flynn. 1999.

The Authoritative Reference on Roosevelt Dimes. Kevin Flynn. 2001. NOTE: The variety listing numbers follow Flynn's own system and not those of CONECA or Wexler.

Quarters

The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of United States Liberty Seated Quarters. Larry Briggs

Standing Liberty Quarters. J. H. Cline. Third edition.

The Complete Guide to Barber Quarters. David Lawrence. Second edition.

The Best of the Washington Quarter Doubled Dies. John A. Wexler and Kevin Flynn. 1999.

The Washington Quarter Dollar Book: An Attribution and Pricing Guide (1932-1941) Vol. 1. James Wiles. 1999.

The Washington Quarter Dollar Book: An Attribution and Pricing Guide (1942-1944) Vol. 2. James Wiles. 2001.

The Washington Quarter Dollar Book: An Attribution and Pricing Guide (1945-1949) Vol. 3. James Wiles. 2003

Halves

Early Half Dollar Varieties. Al C. Overton.

The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Half Dollars. Randy Wiley and Bill Bugert

The Complete Guide to Walking Liberty Half Dollars. Bruce Fox. 1993.

The Complete Guide to Franklin Half Dollars. Rick Tomaska.

Treasure Hunting Walking Liberty Half Dollars. Kevin Flynn. 2003. NOTE: The variety listing numbers follow Flynn's own system and not those of CONECA or Wexler.

Treasure Hunting Franklin and Kennedy Half Doubled Dies. Kevin Flynn and John Wexler. 2003.

The Kennedy Half Dollar Book: An Attribution and Pricing Guide. James Wiles. 1998. First and only book ever published on the series.

Dollars

Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan and Peace Dollars. Leroy C. Van Allen and A. George Mallis. Fourth edition. Commonly called the VAM book.

The Top 100 Morgan Dollar Varieties: The VAM Keys. Michael S. Fey and Jeff Oxman. The book that really heated up the Morgan variety market.

The 1878 Morgan Dollar 8-TF Attribution System. Jeff Oxman and Les Hartnett. 1998.

The 1878 Morgan Dollar 7/8-TF Attribution Guide. Jeff Oxman and Les Hartnett. 1999.

Morgan Dollar Overdates, Over Mintmarks, Misplaced Dates and Clashed E Reverses. Kevin Flynn.

The Official Guide to the Top 50 Peace Dollar Varieties. Jeff Oxman and David Close. 2002.

CONECA Attribution Guide to Eisenhower Dollar Die Varieties. James Wiles. 1997.

The Authoritative Reference on Eisenhower Dollars. John A. Wexler, Bill Crawford, and Kevin Flynn. 1998. NOTE: The variety listing numbers follow Flynn's own system and not those of CONECA or Wexler.

Periodicals

“Collectors' Clearinghouse” by Michael Diamond. Coin World.

Die Variety News edited by Billy G. Crawford.

Errorscope. Bi-monthly journal of CONECA.

The Hub. NCAAD.

Specialty Variety Books

The Encyclopedia of Doubled Dies. Vol. 1 & 2. John A. Wexler. 1978, 1981. Recently reprinted but fast becoming dated as new books on the various series are rapidly being published.

The RPM Book. John A. Wexler and Tom Miller. 1983. Though outdated in respect to Lincoln cents and Jefferson nickels, it is still the standard for the remaining series.

Two Dates are Better than One – A Collector's Guide to Misplaced Dates. Kevin Flynn. 1997. Still the only book devoted to the MPD.

The Cud Book. Sam Thurman and Arnold Margolis. 1997. Even though attribution is sometimes extremely difficult due to poor photography standards of past decades, it is the standard for cud collectors.

Over Mintmarks and Hot Repunched Mintmarks. Kevin Flynn and John Wexler. 2003. NOTE: Listing numbers apparently follow the Wexler system, but without the prefixed W.

What Are Die Varieties? James Wiles. 2011. E-book. It is not only an overview of the entire die variety field, but it also takes each area in-depth with exhaustive lists and extensive photo listings.

Email: jameswiles@sbcglobal.net

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