BOOK REVIEW: PLEASURE & PROFIT

BOOK REVIEW: Pleasure & Profit: 100 Lessons for Building and Selling a Collection of Rare Coins by Robert W. Shippee (Whitman Publishing, 2014) By Steve Bishop

When it comes to guides to investing in rare coins, the gold standard for me is The Expert’s Guide to Collecting and Investing in Rare Coins by Q. David Bowers (also from Whitman). Whitman’s newest offering in this area is a worthy supplement to that essential work, as well as a nice companion volume to A Guide to United States Type Coins, also by Bowers (prolific fellow, this Bowers; he also provided the Forward for this work).

Unlike most works on investing, this book is not laid out as a series of instructions relating to rare coin investing in general, but as a series of examples pertaining to a collection put together and then sold by Mr. Shippee, specifically a fine collection of U.S. type coins from half cents to double eagles. The collection was auctioned by Stack’s in 2007 as the Waccabuc Collection.

The book starts out with an account of how the author got started in coin collecting and a chapter devoted to outlining the various aspects of what makes coins rare and valuable, as well as an outline of various ways to buy coins (an appendix outlines how to sell). A chapter is devoted to each denomination in the collection, with Stack’s catalog description for each coin accompanied by Shippee’s comments on the particular type, the coin he selected for each type, the amount he paid for the coin, the amount it realized, and a lesson he learned from that particular coin.

It is Shippee’s focus on lessons applicable to specific coins bought and sold that sets this book apart. While most books on coin investing provide general advice applicable to rare coins in general, this one stands out by tailoring the lessons to specific coins, although many of the lessons may be generally applied. Many of the lessons echo what is covered in great detail by Bowers in the Expert’s Guide, such as selecting a coin by condition, surface quality, and strike quality, but the book is particularly useful by focusing on specific series and coins within those series.

Not all of the lessons that Shippee learned were pleasant; in addition to successes, there were failures. Not all of the coins that he sold realized a profit; in fact, of the 138 coins in the Waccabuc Collection, 52 were sold at a loss. It is another strength of this book that the author doesn’t gloss over these losses and endeavors to learn something from them. Often failure teaches you more than success. In addition, some of the lessons are counterintuitive; my favorite being Shippe’s declaration that AU-58 is his favorite grade. This is counter to most guides’ advice to buy the highest grade coin you can afford. In many instances, buying a coin that is genuinely rare but in lesser condition works out better that buying a common coin in high grade.

Although I really liked this book, there was one thing that annoyed me. There are some footnotes (configured as end notes) in the text. A scholarly work that includes a lot of citations and other information that is of interest perhaps only to other scholars is justified by placing the notes at the end, but in this case, the reader would have been much better served by placing the notes at the bottom of the page where they could be readily taken in, since they included information that illuminated the text. Having to look in the back of the book for this additional information was a chore.

All in all, this book is a fine addition to any collector/investor’s library. Although tailored specifically to a U.S. type coin collection, the lessons are of general applicability to all rare coins. And for the golfers out there, Shippee, an avid golfer, includes humorous stories about golf that he links to rare coins. While they don’t really add anything of substance, they do add a bit of comic relief to a serious subject.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: PLEASURE AND PROFIT (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n40a04.html)
BOOK REVIEW: PLEASURE & PROFIT (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n49a06.html)

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