Dana's Textbook of Mineralogy, 4th Edition

I am trying to create a "current value list" of my possessions in case my house burns down. Does anyone know the current value of this book (hardcover, fair to good condition, printed 1954)? I can't find a single copy for sale via Google, and I remember it was pretty expensive when I bought it many years ago.

Thanks for your help!

Dan Z

Hi Dan.
Found this reference to your query on another site:-

Dana's System of Mineralogy
Used book dealers are selling the seventh edition for about $150 and the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions from $300 to $400.

Hope this helps.

Regards george

link here if it helps [www.gamineral.org]

also available as e book download from mindat here :- [www.mindat.org]

A very informative ground laying reference book, lost mine some years ago but have downloaded it again from this site.

EDITS were all typo`s



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2012 07:29PM by George Creighton.

The "Textbook of Mineralogy" is not the same book as the "The System of Mineralogy". It's basically a college textbook, and I believe not worth quite so much.

Copies of the "Textbook" are for sale here from anywhere between $15 and $150, depending on the year of issue and general condition:

[www.alibris.com]

Vik

I find a 4th edition fairly often in our local used book "treasurehouse". I always buy it to give to new collectors (any edition of the Manual as well) and have never paid more than $25.00 ($12 to $15 for the Manual).

Don

It is very common to get confused between the [Dana's] System of Mineralogy, the Textbook of Mineralogy, and the Manual of Mineralogy, and the other series of books authored by James D. Dana and Edward S. Dana. Also there are various editions of each of the series, or titles, and various printings. Also that some reprints or re-publications have later dates but were the same as earlier ones, and others have appendices. This can get a bit confusing at times and some time ago I did a bit of research and wrote up a bit about it. Someone once wanted me to tabulate the data (I had put it in text form) but I could not manage to tabulate it, so it remained as text. This was to help me to keep things straight, and is limited to the editions published in the U.S. (I do not know about any published elsewhere, and their editions might be another system). I had started it in text as I thought it might be useful on some website but it got to be too large (several pages) for a posting, so this admittedly amateur bibliophilic monograph has never been published.

I can only provide what I paid as a reference point. The various Dana texts I have at home are:

Manual of Mineralogy - Found it new on Amazon for $13.45 USD. This is a 2008 reprint of an 1857 version.

Dana's System of Mineralogy - Seventh Edition (Vols I-III) 1944, 1952, 1961 - Just found these on eBay about a week ago for $31.00 USD for all three. Though they are ex-library, one is in very good condition and the other two are in superb condition. Based on what I have heard about the pricing, that is a pretty good deal for these, so I guess I got lucky.

Textbook of Geology - 1864 - Found it on eBay for $9.99 USD.

I don't yet have the Textbook of Mineralogy.

HI

As mentioned above that particular text is aimed at students.
I beleive it may have a value of around US$30 for a fair used copy
So from an insurance point of view it may be worth insuring for $50 thus covering the costs of obtaining a replacement (postage etc).
There are plenty of copies available on the net if you look hard enough - don't limit yourself to just Googling

Cheers