The Gold Book: A Guide to Commonly Traded Gold Bullion Coins and Bars

The Gold Book came into being in response to our customer's most frequently asked questions regarding gold bullion coins.

It is a comprehensive, authoritative gold guide for professional and novice alike. It follows a systematic, easy to follow format in its description of more than 100 popular gold issues. Life-sized pictures of both the obverse and reverse of most coins appear on the outer edges of each page to assist readers in quickly identifying a particular gold bullion piece.

Included in the specifications of each coin are the following: Total Weight, Purity, Gold Content, Fineness, Diameter, Thickness, Edge, Mint, Strike, whether or not the piece is Legal Tender, the Mintage Period, and the Designer (when available). There are also descriptions of the designs which appear on the obverse and the reverse of each piece.

Six appendicies appear in the back of the book. They list the coins included in the book in a variety of ways. For instance, one appendix lists the coins by diameter and thickness which is very helpful to jewelers who make coin jewelry. Another lists the coins by purity. A third by gold content which is very useful for those wanting to compare the gold content of one coin with that of another. A fourth lists the coins by total weight. The others list the coins by country. The Gold Book is intended for use by appraisers, attorneys, bankers, coin dealers, investors, jewelers and anyone else buying, selling, appraising, inheriting, or accepting gold as collateral. It answers many common questions about gold coins and bars.

Margaret Olsen, one of America's top authorities on precious metals, has taught thousands of clients the secrets of investing in precious metals. "The Gold Book - A Guide to Commonly Traded Gold Bullion Coins and Bars" which she co-authored, was written in response to her customer's frequently asked questions about gold bullion.

Ms Olsen's interest in coins and metals stems from her childhood. For the past 25 years, as president of Westminster Coin & Jewelry, Ltd., Westminster, Colo., she has made them her profession.of Appraisers, where she is a senior accredited member and past president of the Denver chapter. She also is a member of numerous numismatic associations, including the American Numismatic Association and the American Numismatic Society. She was an invited speaker for the group's international conference in New York in July, 1997.

Olsen is coauthor of "The Platinum & Palladium Buyer's Guide." She has served on the board of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association, and is listed in Who's Who, Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who of the West, and the World's Who's Who of Women.