Expert: Jim Lawniczak - 7/15/2004

Question
Jim Lawniczak,

I was wondering do you know what is the best book to get to find pricing about all coins? I have a great amount that I need to get pricing on. I have gotten them over the years and off ebay. Could you help me out with this?

Thanks for your time.

Brady Harmon

Answer
Brady, the best pricing guide is the Coin Dealers Newsletter -- it comes out weekly for things that trade a lot (like Morgan Dollars), monthly for most items (Indian cents, Lincoln cents, up the line) and quarterly for things that don't trade all that often (Large Cents, much older items).  It is pretty expensive and you can only get it by subscription.  They probably have a website, try going to www.google.com and doing a search for "Coin Dealers Newsletter" or CDN.

Other than that, there are pricing lists in the Coin World and Numismatic News (weekly publications), Coinage Magazine and the like.  They are all a little out of date and more focused on retail but not bad.

The problem with books is that they are out of date by the time you get your hands on them.  The Red Book is the most known source and isn't all that bad, but the prices won't be all that accurate.

I am sure information on all the above is available by doing a google search.  Also you might go to www.ebay.com and see if anyone is selling the above.  Perhaps someone is even selling a month old or so CDN Newsletter (if you had the May newsletter, for example, your prices wouldn't be all that far off).  Hope this helps, Jim Lawniczak

Hope that helps