Book excerpt: A unique and indispensable reference work Unsurpassed in content and scope When the first edition of Gold Coins of the World made its debut in 1958, it forever changed the way gold coins were collected, cataloged, traded, and priced. For the first time, one book provided a reliable guide for a subject which previously required an often expensive investment in multiple volumes of literature, some of it rare and antique, and much of it badly out-of-date. With the publication of this pioneering work, Robert Friedberg (1912-1963) established himself as an international icon in the field of numismatic literature. This book, and the 'Friedberg Numbering System' he developed became then, and is still today, the internationally-recognized standard for systematically identifying any gold coin ever made. From just 384 pages in 1958, Gold Coins of the World has expanded to the extent that it now contains more than triple the information of its ancestor. It still stands alone as the first and only book to describe, catalog and price two millennia of gold, platinum, and palladium coin issues from across the globe. From the first coins of the ancient Greeks to the most recently-issued modern commemoratives, they are all here, an astonishing compilation of more than 21,000 individual coin listings accompanied by over 8,000 actual-size photographs. The prices have been completely updated, for the most part raised substantially, to reflect the current market. Entire sections have been expanded, many illustrations have been added or improved, and hundreds of new discoveries and recent issues have been included for the first time. Arthur Friedberg, president of the International Association of Professional Numismatists from 2001 to 2007 and now its Honorary President, and Ira Friedberg, have completely revised and expanded their late father's work. They have had the valuable assistance and cooperation of a who's who of the leading numismatists on every continent in bringing this edition to fruition. For the numismatist, banker, economist, historian, institution of higher learning, or a fancier of the noble metal in all its forms, Gold Coins of the World is a book for every library, public and private.