NEW BOOK: CASH IN YOUR COINS

Whitman Publishing announces the release of Cash In Your Coins: Selling the Rare Coins You’ve Inherited, by Beth Deisher. The 288-page book is available online (including at www.Whitman.com) and from book sellers and hobby shops nationwide, for $9.95.

Deisher wrote Cash In Your Coins to inform and protect the hundreds of thousands of Americans who already collect coins, and those who will someday inherit their collections.

Coin collecting is a popular national pastime, recently invigorated by the U.S. Mint’s State quarter program. (Today the Mint regularly sends its catalogs to more than 600,000 active collectors.) The hobby’s popularity is not new: Whitman Publishing has sold more than 23 million copies of its annual Guide Book of United States Coins (the “Red Book”) since 1946.

Valuable coins might be archived in safe-deposit boxes; they could be tucked away in Grandpa’s cigar box. They might compose a carefully arranged collection—or sit jumbled in a disorganized hoard. Cash In Your Coins answers questions that inheritors often ask: “How rare are these coins? What are they worth? Should we sell? Where would we even begin?”

Author Beth Deisher is an award-winning journalist and retired editor of Coin World, the premier news weekly for collectors. For more than 30 years she has answered the questions above. Now, in Cash In Your Coins, she guides readers through the process of making sense of their coins, and making smart decisions when they sell.

Q. David Bowers (research editor of the Red Book) says, “With Beth Deisher’s guidance you’ll avoid costly mistakes and make decisions about your coins with more confidence.”

In addition to giving confidence to tomorrow’s inheritors, Cash In Your Coins gives comfort to today’s collectors. They can keep a copy of the book alongside their collection, knowing it will be there to give their heirs profitable knowledge and advice.

Cash In Your Coins • ISBN 0794837921 • Softcover • 6 x 9 inches • Full color • 288 pages • Retail $9.95

I have a review copy and Deisher's book is nicely done. While there is little in it a numismatist wouldn't already know, it does address its intended audience well - the non-numismatists who may inherit a collection. Right up front she asks the readers that time-tested question: "How much do you want for your coins?" If you can't answer that with conviction, you're ripe for a rip-off. It pays to do your homework, and this book provides a number of helpful hints.

Sorting, identifying, inventorying and valuing coins are all covered in an easy and understandable way. The tips are very practical, particularly for the typical accumulation most heirs encounter. For example, sorting coins by color, which is an easy step for isolating the more valuable silver and gold coins. To handle piles of Wheat Cents, she recommends weighing them, a good practical alternative to individually evaluating what could be hundreds or thousands of common coins.

I found the section on calculating melt value very helpful. Some readers will get lost in the math, but ought to have a very good incentive for figuring it out in order to get a fair price for their junk bullion coins. At $9.95. the book is quite affordable and a bargain for the right readers, who could save a hundred times that amount by following its advice and avoiding a disposition disaster. -Editor

I've talked to a lot of dealers and collectors this week (I'm at the ANA Summer Seminar; Beth and I are teaching a course on writing, editing, research, collecting, and numismatic publishing, along with Ken Bressett and Bob Hoge), and it's been gratifying to hear "I'm so glad Beth wrote this book" over and over.

Collectors' widows, children, and other heirs are one obvious audience for "Cash In Your Coins." But equally I feel it's a book for COLLECTORS themselves --- not necessarily to learn about the latest VAMs or American Silver Eagle sets, but to keep in the safe-deposit box along with their collections. It's peace of mind for them, knowing that Beth Deisher will guide their families when the time comes. "The widow game," is how one dealer summarized the treatment dished out by unscrupulous hotel-ballroom buyers and other fleece artists. Beth has given the widows a way to fight back!

We've also heard from longtime dealers and collectors who like having a single resource that explains capital gains, insurance, declarations of value in an estate inventory, the effects of recent legislation, etc. Two examples: the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 set new tax rates and thresholds that affect collectors; and "ObamaCare" imposes a 3.8% tax that goes into effect December 31 of this year. Not surprisingly, many collectors aren't up to date on this kind of legislation. Beth explains it all with the skill and clarity of a longtime journalist.