Found some stuff, wanted to get your thoughts. Redbook has increased advertisements throughout, which is one thing, but errors and omissions are worse in my opinion. https://youtube.com/shorts/XCHlPmh7hvI?feature=share
Those are pretty minor. Almost everything in the Barber Silver Coins red book about hub types is wrong.
I am disappointed with the coverage of the commemorative coins. The historical write-ups are all gone. All that's left is pictures. The trouble is the mint is issuing so much "junk" that the boook will have to leave off information or be made into two volumes. The British did that years ago with the decimal and pre-decimal Sovereign British coin guides.
Oh I've found a few. I don't have the patience to find every one, but the most obvious ones, and probably not fair to hold against them, is when they try to predict what will come out, or they assume something proposed will actually be approved, that ends up never coming into existence. I have the 2nd edition that in the section for Walking Liberty half dollars, has a listing for one minted in 1948... that never existed, because that's when they switched to the Franklin design. (One of my favorite thrift store finds; I found this at a Goodwill store for $1! Reasonably good condition, so how could I not get it!) Another one has listings for silver versions of the presidential dollars; this was proposed at a time, but never ended up actually being approved. I'm not a huge fan of how the 2026 book was organized, and some details just disappeared entirely. It also doesn't match the other hard back Red Books on the shelf. Surprised nobody ever mentions that lol. The new 2027 Red Book comes out some time in July; hopefully they fixed some of the issues. Guess we'll see.
The Charlton guides for Canada also split out all the not-for-circulation gunk into a separate volume years ago.
Didn't think about that... the mint is putting out a lot of random non-sense. Money making schemes mostly.
I gotta hit up goodwill more often, they are not great in my area compared to other places I've lived, what a find though! $1! Not bad at all.
Still surprised to have found it... it's not the 1st edition, but even the 2nd edition is quite a find lol. And for $1 how could I not get that. Goodwill is like "Garage Sale: The Store": 90% of what they have is junk, but sometimes there's interesting things there, especially amongst the books and records (a good portion of my record collection is from Goodwill). I have every Red Book from 2006-2026, but also have them from 1948 (2nd edition), 1963, 1965, 1972, & 1976. I will occasionally buy old Red Books if I see them. It's fun to see how the book has changed over time, and also what old prices were. Coin stores, and sometimes coin shows, will have old used Red Books and if the price is right and I'm in the mood I'll pick them up. There exists a Red Book... for collecting Red Books lol, and I thought "well that seems more than a little self-serving." But I would recommend the book that has the history of the Red Book ("A Penny Saved" by Kenneth Bressett) as well as a lot of biographical information about R. S. Yeoman, writer of the 1st book (and a lot of his writings are still in the modern book).
That's so cool! I need to do that too... I only have 2 copies of the redbook, 2019 and 2026. My local Goodwill is ok for records, I can find some good one every now and then, but most are scratched up or have mold all over the sleeve/jacket. I used Discogs a lot for ordering gently used vinyl.
I like the 2026 Red Book, spiral bound version. The slightly larger format allows for more info in the same thickness as 2025. I like having the proofs in a table separate from the circulation strikes which allows pricing of different grades. And there are other add-ons like the list of quarter dollar designers. There are descriptions of the commems; just on separate pages from the pics. And they are briefer … a necessary space concession to the burgeoning number of commens produced lately. And there are other categories with zooming numbers of designs, like the bazillion quarter dollars, that require space. I think keeping as much as possible in one volume should continue. But eventually to keep the book small, there may need to be a couple. Of course, it’s long been the case that patterns and private issues needed their own books. I haven’t had much use for the GSID numbers yet. I’ll have to explore the app. Overall, I think Jeff Garrett did a great job with the 2026 Red Book. Mike
