Customer Rating: 
Summary: Perfect for the beginner
Comment: I just started collecting Oriental coins. This book is a great teaching and identifiying aid. Tells you how to find the date, denomination, and ruler on Chinese coins (and others). I suspect that some who have been collecting for a long time may find it lacking in some areas, but for me it is just what I needed. I would recommend it to anyone interested in collecting coins from around the world.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but surely indispensable
Comment: The Standard Catalog of World Coins is undoubtedly the best selling coin reference book and a vital reference material for all collectors. The book is certainly not perfect however, and although it is a must-have publication for all those who collect coins from all over the world, there are several mistakes and omissions. Keeping track of prices is also very difficult and I suspect that in some cases at least, the price quotes come from the application of a general formula (data, mintage, denomination, metals used etc), rather than the international or local market itself. This is not much of a problem if you are only interested in identifying your coins or get a rough estimate of their value, but keep in mind that the prices included are certainly not accurate. The coin market is so volatile that it couldn't have happened any other way.
Should you buy the 2004 version (or 2005 for that matter) if you already own a previous one? Since i live in Europe, the recent currency change had a tremendous effect on coin collecting and the euros were first included in the 2004 edition. Therefore, the answer is yes, as i will probably be buying the 2005 edition too, which will contain many commemorative euros produced in the mean time. If there haven't been any radical changes in the coins you are interested in, maybe you should keep the old one for a couple of years before purchasing a new one.
In general, the Standard Catalog of World Coins is a comprehensive Catalog, which -despite its flaws- is indispensable. Major points of concern are the black & white pictures, and the huge size of this monster that really should move to the digital age and come on a CD. Of course software piracy is a key issue, but this media would realy help collectors access the content.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but
Comment: Not perfect, but MUST have.
(unless you have a previous edition :)
Customer Rating:
Summary: It is a pre- Euro catalog.
Comment: This animal is good for pointing out many coins that may be missed in the smaller magazines and at trade shows. However it is a catalog, about the size of a phone book and with so few advertisers that they are negligible.
There are no fancy color pictures just coins and lots of them divided into countries; so many coins that it can make your head spin if you are not searching for a particular theme. The shallow part of the book is the depth of time.
This version came out before the Euro however I am collecting Notgeld and trade dollars.
When I write reviews I look for a stumper or two. Well this book passed. I looked up the "Wailbligen 100". Sure as shoot'n there it was with an explanation and references to Porcelain coins.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive catalog, but with flaws
Comment: No question, this is the best, if not the only reference, for someone, whether collector or dealer, desiring a worldwide comprehensive volume of twentieth and twenty-first century coins. If it has been issued since 1901, you'll probably find it in here (though a few issues get overlooked and later included, but that is not a major flaw).The problem is that, with the endless stream of non circulating coins being issued by governments (and in some cases, "governments" needs quotation marks. As does coins.), Krause is being forced to fit more and more into a volume which has already reached its limits on size, thickness, smallness of print, and thinness of paper. Something's got to give. Unfortunately, what has given is that the valuable reference material (such as original prices for coin sets) has vanished from its pages.
Maybe it is time to put the junk, like Marshall Islands and similar ilk, into a second volume which, like the pre-1900 issues volumes, gets updated only every two years or so. Or put on a CD-ROM.
Fact remains, though, this is an indispensible reference book for the coin collector and dealer. And mostways, it is pretty good.
