An illustrated catalog of gold coins of the United States, including auction records, market values, and a coin-by-coin study.

The coins and tokens of colonial America and the early United States present a unique chronicle of our nation's birth. This comprehensive guide provides an authoritative reference on all pre-Federal coinage.

The Value of Money celebrates the power of using monetary objects to explore history. This richly illustrated book features over 175 objects from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s National Numismatic Collection. With objects from every inhabited continent, spanning more than 2,600 years, this book showcases the National Numismatic Collection’s unique strengths, including the geographic and chronological diversity of the collection and the stunning rarities it contains. The companion volume to a major exhibition of the same name, this book examines the origins of money, new monetary technologies, the political and cultural messages money conveys, numismatic art and design, and the practice of collecting money. The Value of Money connects American history to global histories of exchange, cultural interaction and expression, political change, and innovation.

Winner of the 2009 NLG Best World Coin Book Award!

Jeff Ambio is a well-known numismatic expert and auction cataloger. As one of the industry's most highly trained numismatic scholars, Ambio brings first-hand experience and expertise together to offer exclusive insider tips for the collector and investor - What do I look for? Which coin should I buy next? Is the coin available on the market? How much can I expect to pay? And how do I make the most of my investment? This book covers regular-issue gold series from 1795 through 1933 and informs the reader on a number of investing strategies, including collecting by type, variety, or rarer issues. The book includes over 150 high-resolution gold coin images, graphs, and vital pricing data. Each chapter begins with a brief history of a gold type, then goes on to describe various tactics or game plans to help the investor build his or her collection successfully and profitably.