Apropos bad numismatic books, I am reminded of the 1976 edition of the Scott Comprehensive Catalogue & Encyclopedia of United States Coins, based upon the 1971 edition by Don Taxay but edited by Joseph Rose and Howard Hazelcorn. Some radical changes from the Taxay edition were not

improvements in my opinion, and the illustrations were so bad that the book came from the publisher with several sheets of pictures on gummed sheets with peel-off backs that the buyer was invited to cut out and paste over the original illustration.

That was not the horribly bad book, however. Because the book was intended to serve as a reference that would last several years (unlike the Redbook which was repriced and reissued every year), the publishers decided to offer a small-format companion booklet that could be sold as an updated pricing guide every year, cross-referenced to the numbering system in the main book.

The publishers jobbed this out to somebody on staff who knew nothing about coins. One statement informed you that "All U.S. commemorative coins are so carefully made that they are Proofs." Another paragraph described how all U.S. Coins were made (as best I can remember):

This book inspired Coin World to write its first negative book review ever. Mssrs. Rose and Hazelcorn disavowed any knowledge or connection to the booklet, and I have no reason to doubt them.

Tom adds:

Pete Smith writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:MORE ON THE WORST NUMISMATIC BOOKS (AND WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT ALL OF THEM)(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n37a10.html)