A Guide Book of United States Coins, 2nd Edition: The Official Red Book, Deluxe Edition

I cannot disagree more regarding a prior comment relating this book to an overpriced regular Redbook. The Mega Reds are the single most must-haves for any collector, investor, and yes, even dealers. It has a special section on a coin denomination or type each edition, and then breaks down specifics for each year. This gives you specialized information on circulation strikes and proof issues. Want to know which years had Lincoln proofs prone to spots, freckling, or "pimples" or which years had more of an orange color vs orange brown, and which years featured Buffalo nickels with full horns but weak braids on the obverse? Refer to these books. The Mega Reds will cover all the errors and die varieties so you probably won't need the Cherry Picker's Guide or error books, and you will know which years had strong strikes, specific toning, what colors to expect in MS or circulated, what you should expect from a Matte vs satin proof etc. There is no better reference, and I would go as far to say that if you had every edition of the Mega Red, you could consider this your numismatic library and be ahead of 90% of all collectors, investors, and dealers, with the other 10% being specialists in a particular series, for which you would likely need several volumes on just one type coin. Although I would add Q David Bower's "The Experts Guide to Collecting & Investing In Rare Coins" and maybe, just for some sense of performance history, Bower's "A Guidebook of United States Type Coin" so you can see the percentages for returns. Now if you are just a casual collector, then I agree with the prior comment--stick w/ the Redbook, save some money (and some space on your shelves) and you should be fine.

This is a much bigger version of the Red book. This has much more history than the smaller version. Other than that it is the same thing for more money. Think I will stick with the smaller version.