Official Blackbook Price Guide To United States Paper Money 2009 by Thomas E. Hudgeons III, Tom Hudgeons (2008, Paperback)

Thomas E. Hudgeons III, Official Blackbook Price Guide to United States Paper Money 2009, turned out to be a real disappointment. If all one desires is an easy to carry quick reference guide that provides bare bones reference material for ease of identification then the book will probably work. If one wants realistic information such as nice, clear, photos both front and back then they need to pass. The example photos are skimpy in number, black and white, small, and offer only one side of most notes. This is especially true in the Confederate Currency section in which only Virgina notes are offered and only the frontal view of them.

Sellers like to promote the Confederate Note section as a selling point; however it is basically useless for the majority of notes actually issued by the confederacy. Again only the front of the note is shown in black and white and the back is only described as "Bright Blue Background with Denomination spelled out". Not very impressive as on some of these notes there are several varieties; all of them not covered, and a basic description is not sufficient to adequately identify the note or its variants. It leaves one to imagination as to exactly what a "Bright Blue Background" means and which blue background variation belongs to what note as some are made of Roman numerals and others are made up of the denomination spellings.

The binder is exceptionally cheap even for a paper back and with just a few uses began to split and pages began to become un-leafed. I found the overall quality of information and assembly of the book itself to be lacking. Like most price guides, it appears to be more of an inflationary tool intended to create higher prices for collectable currency than offer realistic current market price and can not account for value flux in economic uncertain periods of time - something no book can do - but is a total fraud in its pricing structure regardless of current economic events.

Many may see books such as these as valuable reference material; mostly those who are attempting to sell notes at a higher price and require back up proof their new demands, but the fact remains, no one is prophetic enough to consistently put out these books and accurately reflect true value trends a year or more in advance as Hudgeons does. For Hudgeons the real value of his books is the profits he makes selling them to new collectors hoping for a base line on which to work as they take up a new hobby and the dealer desiring to justify his newly inflated price increases to the unwary.