Grading, Doctoring and Crack Outs Explored in The Coin Collector's Survival Manual, Fifth Edition Publishing giant, Random House, has an important new consumer protection book with straight-forward information about the risks and rewards in the $3 billion U.S. rare coin market.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - (New York, NY) -- Consumer advocate and former American Numismatic Association Vice President, Scott A. Travers, reveals trade secrets on how to make money and avoid mistakes in the rare coin marketplace in his new book, The Coin Collector's Survival Manual, Fifth Edition (Random House, New York 2006).
The straight-forward book candidly examines grading controversies and the recent popularity of registry sets, playing the "crack out" game with third-party encapsulated coins, and the dangers of online auctions and coin doctoring.
"This is the most important book I have ever written. It will help thousands of people make or save money," said Travers, president of Scott Travers Rare Coin Galleries, LLC, of New York City (www.PocketChangeLottery.com).
There are 1,200 consumer protection caveats offering readers time-tested advice on how to buy and sell coins profitably, whether it's a valuable item found in pocket change or multi-million dollar rarities at auctions. Detailed photographs of repaired coins and coins with genuine and artificial toning give readers unprecedented side-by-side comparisons.
Illustrated with more than 260 state-of-the-art digital color and black and white images of coins, this 400-page guide packs a powerful, one-two punch for consumers. It combines a thorough update of earlier editions of The Coin Collector's Survival Manual with another of Travers' seven acclaimed books, How to Make Money in Coins Right Now. Both were bestsellers in their own right, and now both are available together in a single, updated and timely volume.
Among the topics covered in the new book:
• Unexpected changes in grading standards since 2003.
• How the popular registry set programs have changed the numismatic market, and how to use set registries to your advantage.
• Extraordinary insights and secrets of crack-outs and getting lucrative upgrades from third-party grading services. Well-known dealer Jim Halperin tells how he made millions in profits by resubmitting coins.
• Detecting altered, counterfeit and "doctored" coins.
• Comprehensive discussions by leading experts about taxes and tax consequences on buying and selling numismatic items, including record keeping, estate planning secrets, retirement plans and in-kind exchanges.
• Exposing the pitfalls and avoiding the dangers of ignorance when buying coins through online auctions.
• How to capitalize on the gyrations of gold prices when buying collectible gold coins. What coins you should buy when gold is moving up, and how to minimize losses when gold prices are falling.
• Security issues now facing collectors and investors after 9/11 and natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina.
Ed Reiter, Senior Editor of COINage magazine, declared, "The Coin
Collector's Survival Manual, Fifth Edition has now become the most important coin book ever written... a spectacular tour de force that surely will be proclaimed an instant classic -- and undoubtedly will stand for years to come as the gold standard for coin books on consumer protection and investment."
Newsweek praised Travers as "the coin collector's best friend," and stated "you can't afford to be without" The Coin Collector's Survival Manual.
The Coin Collector's Survival Manual, Fifth Edition ($22.95; ISBN: 0-375-72127-4) is
