THE OFFICIAL RED BOOK OF UNITED STATES COINS

Does anyone here collect the Red Books

Besides me?

 

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can't say I "collect" them but I do have 5-6 copies ranging from 72-2021 lol

 

I have hung onto my first Redbook for nostalgia's sake. It is a 1976 edition. It's fun sometimes to peruse the pages and dream that I had money and foresight back then.

 

I have around 12 or more, and I have the book you wrote as well, signed!

 

I don't, but I bought a 1970 Red Book for historical prices and the like.

 

I typically buy a new Red Book every few years. The old ones usually get put in the "books to sell" pile because I pretty much never reference them once a new one arrives. I already have enough books to manage.

 

I don't collect them but have a few from over the years. I think this year's 75th anniversary edition will be my last. I won't need any info on what the mint is about to start spewing out since I won't be collecting it. I've run out of holes to fill and I won't be buying any new holes.

A few years back at a local coin show, someone had piled up a hundred or so Red Books from various years on a table out front, free for the taking. The pile looked untouched from when I entered the show and when I left.

 

I do. I have a 4th edition, 5th edition, 1st edition Blue Book, 1980 Red Book signed by Yeoman, and I have a 1980 Blue Book signed by Yeoman to a contributor on the way. Plus many other editions.

@Treashunt, I also have your book.


I have shown this one before



This is the Alva Christensen who owned this book:

 

I have a complete year set beginning with the first edition. I only one variety, the one they made for the FUN anniversary. It’s a “readers set” in used condition, which in fine by me because I can use the books for research and don’t worry about messing them up. The set is now up to 76 + 1 books for me.

 

I don't collect them but I have 1. Never expected to come across one at a Spanish version of a yard sale so picked it up for 2 Euros

 

Thing is…. The useful info in the book doesn’t change. I don’t do moderns so my 1976 book was fine for me….. Until I graduated to the large print version.

 

I used to have a 1965 Redbook that I picked up at Goodwill. The thing that really sticks in my memory is that in 1965, prices for common-date UNC Indian cents were higher than prices for common-date UNC double eagles!

 

I have the entire run from the second edition to about 1980. I have a first edition but it's the tribute edition. I'd love to find an original 1st edition someday. I also have some of the Blue Books but I haven't been actively buying those.

 

I still have a few hundred.

 

Indian and Lincoln Cents were “the coins” in the mid 1960’s. I know because I was collecting them in Fine or better condition when I was in high school. Gold was viewed as a “safe investment” without a great future.

The Indian Cent market collapsed in the early 1970s. I lost my shirt on my complete set when I sold it for $390 plus a 1964 Proof set. I had $1,200 in it.

My gold type set was worth far more than i paid for it. The full strapping retail price for a $20 gold piece was $75. Most of them (usually chopped up) sold for $49.95. Five and ten dollar gold pieces sold in the $35 to $45 range. You paid the high level of that range for “Select Unc.” pieces, which I almost always did. That paid dividends because when I had those coins graded, they came back in MS-64, sometimes 65. Most “Gem Uncirculated” coins didn’t bring the big premiums in those days.

 

Here's part of my Red Book collection.

From the first to some of the last



Some in the middle.

 

That's a big drop but 65% isn't unheard of. If a true bubble, you'd see drops of 80-95%.

I presume the Indian cents are the gold coins.....if you bought them in the 1960's how did they go down in price as the gold price went up 6-fold by 1974 ?

Again, was this a result of the early-1970's rise in gold (to be followed by another quadrupling from 1976-80) ?

 

Well, that's a little bit of a stretch. I've got the 1965 book, too. It shows UNC common-date double eagles starting at $80. UNC Indian cents (yes, @GoldFinger1969, Indian cents, not Indian quarter/half/full eagles) were as low as $11 for dates in the 1900s, but 1873 was $80, and every other date from 1866 to 1878 was higher than that. So were the 1859, 1861, 64-L, and of course the S mints.

Common UNC Indian quarter eagles were as low as $32; Liberty quarter eagles were $55 and up. Half eagles were $32.50 for common Liberties, $35 for common Indians. Common Liberty eagles were $47.50, $50 for Indians.

But, hey, the median US family income (in 1964, when the book went to press) was $6,600, just under 1/10 of the current median figure. By that measure, quarter eagles and half eagles haven't come up all that much, but double eagles obviously have.

Indian cents, instead of being 10 times their 1965 price, have gone up 3x-4x (some less than 3x).

But those cents are still doing better than the "buy the keys first" 1950-D nickel. In UNC, in 1965, it listed for $22. Today on Numismedia, it's up to... um... $10.60.

 

What's the story behind that coin, considering it sold for a pretty rich price for a regular nickel in 1965 ?