Friedberg, Arthur and Ira. Gold Coins of the World, 50th Anniversary, 8th ed. Clifton, NJ, 2009. Hardbound. Contains 800 pp., including illustrations of types and indices. (X255) $85
The eighth edition of Gold Coins of the World, by Arthur and Ira Friedberg, based on the original work by the late Robert Friedberg, shows that even more remarkable than the rise in the gold price is the dramatic and unparalleled increase in the value of numismatic gold coins. Collectors now realize the relative rarity of coins compared not only to other forms of art and antiques, but also to some other numismatic categories. In addition to the traditional collecting countries such as those in Western Europe that have seen many prices at least double in just five years, those areas in Eastern Europe, such as Russia, Poland, and Hungary, have increased by a factor of ten or more. The coinage of India and the Islamic Empires, long dismissed by western collectors as difficult to decipher, unimportant, and lacking in value, is now the subject of intense interest, so much so that the “Arabian Empires” section is expanded more than tenfold to accommodate the amount of information demanded by contemporary collectors. The gold coins of the ancients, too, have risen dramatically, especially those in higher quality. In fact, as collectors recognized the scarcity of coins in the highest states of preservation, the premium for such coins relative to lower-graded ones escalated beyond traditional proportions.
When the first edition of Gold Coins of the World made its debut in 1958, it forever changed the way gold coins were collected, cataloged, traded, and priced. For the first time, one book provided a reliable guide for a subject which previously required an often expensive investment in multiple volumes of literature, some of it rare and antique, and much of it badly out-of-date. With the publication of this pioneering work, Robert Friedberg (1912-1963) established himself as an international icon in the field of numismatic literature. The 'Friedberg Numbering System' he developed became then, and remains today, the internationally-recognized standard for systematically identifying any gold coin ever made.
From just 384 pages in 1958, Gold Coins of the World has expanded to the extent that it now contains more than triple the information of its ancestor. It still stands alone as the first and only book to describe, catalog and price two millennia of gold, platinum, and palladium coin issues from across the globe. From the first coins of the ancient Greeks to the most recently-issued modern commemoratives, the book contains an astonishing collection of more than 21,000 individual coin listings accompanied by over 8,000 actual-size photographs. The prices, usually in the two most commonly-encountered states of preservation, have been fully updated, for the most part raised substantially, to reflect the dynamics of today's market. Illustrations have been added or improved, and hundreds of new discoveries and recent issues are included for the first time. Contemporary (post-1950) gold coins, which used to form their own section, are now integrated in alphabetical order with all other issues beginning in AD 600.
For the numismatist, banker, economist, historian, or institution of higher learning, the eighth edition of Gold Coins of the World is a book for every library.
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