United States Proof Coins -- Volume IV: Gold

"Volume 4" actually consistes of two books covering proof gold coins which are among the most sought after and desirable issues in United States numismatics.  The first book, Part One, covers gold dollars to gold four dollar coins.  Part Two covers half eagles to double eagles.  The two hardbound books -- consisting of over 1000 pages between them -- come packed in a matching slipcase that holds and protects the two-volume set.

Before this series by Dannreuther, the only full-length treatise on United States proof coins was Walter Breen’s 1977 encyclopedia that later was revised in 1989. Although that seminal book moved the scholarship light years forward, its main drawback was its lack of illustrations. In addition to bringing forward new information, this series corrects for the lack of illustrations in pior works.  This volume on Proof gold has nearly 2,000 illustrations and every proof gold variety either has a full color photograph or a close-up illustration of its pertinent features. This is only possible because of digital photography and software for a work of this magnitude. Details that previously only could be verbally described is now illustrated with such clarity that words are now secondary. Noting the date’s position by where an imaginary vertical line aligns with the left base of the 1 digit aligns with a dentil below it is still noted in this work, but many date positions have obvious other differences. Micro photographs of date positions illustrate these differences and allow easy identification of varieties.