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The Confident Carson City Coin Collector

New Three-Volume Set By Rusty Goe Gives Due Respect to the Carson City Mint and its Coins

Recipient Professional Numismatists Guild

2022 Robert Friedberg Award

Rusty Goe, an award-winning author and noted authority on the Carson City Mint and its coins, wanted to write a book that contained meaningful information to him regarding Carson City coins and the Carson City Mint. He began to seriously contemplate the scope and contents of such a work in 2010. Though he had never ceased compiling information about these subjects, he vigorously escalated his research efforts in 2011-2012.

He set as a goal a publication date of yearend 2019 or early 2020. He wanted the new book’s launch to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Carson City Mint in 1870 (i.e., 2020). The unexpected closing of his and his wife’s (Marie) coin shop in Reno, Nevada, at the end of 2016, along with other interruptions between 2014 and 2017, delayed progress on his book project. By summer 2017 Goe resumed his research and writing in earnest. By early 2019 he completed the first draft of his manuscript.

Much worked remained, however. Goe had essentially developed to their full measures the narratives in the historical sections pertaining to the Carson City Mint. These he could include in his book, with only slight editing, virtually as he had written them. He considered them practically unalterable, etched in stone, as it were. The Coin Commentaries, profiling all 111 date-denominations in a basic complete set of Carson City coins, required revising and the updating of data to make all information current as of yearend 2018. Goe used that as a cutoff time for statistics about the coins, even though he knew he would continue working on his manuscript during 2019 and into 2020. He knew it was futile to add new material about the sales and discoveries of specific Carson City coins as he continued to refine his manuscript during the editing process. This is because he could not have added such new material after a certain cutoff date because that would have precluded the book from ever being ready to send to the printer. There would have always been the next coin (and the next) selling in an auction or private treaty that he would have needed to weave into his book’s narrative. He had to draw a line somewhere, despite the fact that significant “CC” coins continued to sell (some were even discovered) during the entire period he worked on polishing his manuscript.

Despite the yearend 2018 cutoff date, Goe’s new work substantially updates all existing data about “CC” coins. This is because more than fifteen years separates the information regarding “CC” coins in his new volumes from such in his The Mint on Carson Street released in late 2003. (The cutoff time for information about “CC” coins in that book hovered around summer 2003.)

By early 2020, Goe still clung to hope that his now-massive book project was nearing completion. By this time, though, it became obvious that it would require multiple volumes. Would the volume count number two or three? In the end, after trimming (slashing) enough pages to comprise a fourth volume, the new book was split into three volumes. Having determined that, the deadline date for publication was moved to September or October 2020. Many setbacks, including team members resigning from the project and consequences of Covid-19 (e.g., museums and historical societies not delivering requested images, etc.), challenged the likelihood of meeting the deadline.

Dogged determination and an end-of-the-year push resulted in the approved layouts of the volumes reaching the printer in December 2020. The Final Proofs from the printer were finally approved and, after the holiday breaks and other slight delays, the three-volume sets were ready for shipping.

These three volumes’ page counts are: Volume 1—848, Volume 2—1,012, and Volume 3—640. Color images of hundreds of coins are combined with numerous black and white photos to profusely illustrate the pages. Many tables filled with statistics complement the narratives. Appendices (especially in Volume 3) greatly add value to the main text.

In The Confident Carson City Coin Collector in three volumes, Goe shares information that he has discussed for years in personal one-on-one communications with clients and at group meetings (and in lectures). These insights along with so much other valuable information have helped his clients build some of the most desirable collections of all time, and at the same time nurtured his clients’ interests in all things related to the Carson City Mint. He answers questions every budding, intermediate, and advanced collector of Carson City coins wants (and needs) to have answered.

Goe’s intended purpose for The Confident Carson City Coin Collector is to greatly increase the numismatic community’s knowledge about the Carson City Mint and its coins. He sincerely hopes it will instill confidence in everyone interested to boldly explore and pursue the fascinating silver and gold pieces that have survived from Nevada’s colorful and extremely popular coin factory. He believes that the stories behind the coins and a knowledge of the life and times of the Carson City Mint increase a person’s gratification in collecting the coins exponentially. If there is one thing that stands out about his new three-volume set it is the bountiful number of stories (about historical events, people, and coins) that flow through the pages.

Coin Community Forum – Post by “Westcoin”

Some of you here may remember my review of Rusty Goe's "Mint on Carson City" book now out of print and expensive when found (usually). http://goccf.com/t/171017

Rusty went on to write another book "James Crawford: Master of the Mint at Carson City - A Short Full Life" which is still available at modest cost for a 600+ page hardbound book usually running around $35-40 on most book sites.

I'm lucky enough to have both books in my library, but now it seems they have been superseded by Rusty Goe's latest and most monumental effort in literary writing.

A new 3-volume Set all about Carson City Coins. 2500 pages, 1.5 million words.

Here is a comprehensive preview:
https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/club_...tml#article4

and the webpage to order the set which will be out this week or next I'm told.

The Confident Carson City Coin Collector Southgate Coins Website

Now it's not exactly a cheap set of books, but I think the price is beyond fair, knowing Rusty's thoroughness in research from his other works. The cost is only $299.00 for all three volumes plus a $16.00 S&H charge due to the size and weight. Very reasonable for the information you will get and even if Rusty sells out completely he will not make any profit on these books at that price. All of his books have quality paper, ink, photographs and feature top tier production standards.

I'll put this up in the realms of Rick Snow's Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents 2-volume book set or Dave Bowers’ Obsolete Currency Book set. This [The Confident Carson City Coin Collector] is a set to own for the future.

I know I will be looking forward to putting this book set on my own shelf in the near future, along side Rusty's other books and my copy of the Battle Born Auction Catalog.

Here is a link to the Battle Born Auction Catalog, by Stack's/Bowers which was a sale that featured a complete run of Carson City Coinage https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/aucti...ionId=517045 Not only is it the only complete Carson City Collection to be formed on it's own (Eliasberg also had all 111 of the coins), but it is by far and away the finest quality collection ever formed (by a longshot), Rusty Goe was the architect behind building it for the owner.

If you enjoy Carson City history and coins like I do, you need to check out the "Battle Born" auction catalog as well as all of Rusty's books.

I think you, too, will also find a friend in Rusty.