Red book vs blue book, what is the difference.

Hi all,

This Red book and Blue book of American coins is not clear to me, what are the differences between the two?

both books are cheap I can get them both, but shipping is expensive, so if for example most of the information in the blue book is in the red book, then I will get the red book only.

Thanks.

 

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The Red Book is a retail guide, and the Blue Book is a wholesale guide.

Chris

 

Yes, I read that on amazon, but still I do not get it, Red book has 432 pages, the blue book has 256 pages, something is missing.

 

Doug's got it right. The Red Book has great baseline information for series of coins and generalized pricing. But if you're shopping the auctions, dealers and third party sellers, you're going to see a varying discrepency. So a word of advice, research is your best price guide.

 

Some sellers on ebay have the RedBook for good prices with Free Shipping.

 

Thanks all, I will get the red book then.
McBlzr, I am not in USA, thus the high shipping costs.
I will also be getting
- A Guide Book of United States Proof Sets 2nd Edition
- Kraus 5 DVD Set - 1601 - date
- Numismatic Photography, 2nd edition
- kraus Unusual World Coins
- Spink catalog - for British coins

any others I should get?, I am mainly interested in world coins.

 

If you can find it, I like Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins

 

Now that you just brought that up, might as well try to purchase it all from one source, like Amazon. That way they can bundle the whole thing up for shipping and save you money.

 

as per the shocking prices I saw, this will cost more than all the other , I will skip this one.

 

I would love to do that, but it is not possible, Kraus 5 DVD set is only available on kraus site, Spink only available in amazon.co.uk or some British e-bay sellers, others available on amazon.com

 

No specific interests at the moment, trying to cover the basics of world coins, I am mainly into proof and mint sets so that eliminates the need for the more expensive specialized books.

 

That's a shame, wish I had other ideas for you.

 

I was thinking about that, the only reason I wanted Spink because kraus catalog has lots of missing details about coins in the early UK proof sets.

kookoox10 : Thanks, I am used to this, "IF" these books were available in my country, it would still be cheaper for me to buy them online and pay the high shipping costs , same thing goes for coins.

 

If you are interested in Canadian coins there are a few catalogs that may interest you:
Coins of Canada by Haxby - great catalog for the more casual collector of Canadian coins - covers some tokens, provincial issues, Canadian circulating and non-circulating issue and some paper money - a lot of bang for the buck and highly recommended.
The Charlton catalogue of Canadian Coins vols 1 & 2 - the definitive catalogs of Canadian coinage extremely detailed with tons of information. Vol 1 covers circulating issues and provincial coins, while Vol. 2 is dedicated to the non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) issues. If you are a serious collector of Canadian coinage, these are the catalogs for you. Charlton also produced a catalog of Canadian tokens which is excellent.

 

Which one has more details?, mainly coin size, composition and weight?, does any of them have information about proof sets?

Thanks.

 

Free pricing at coins.ha.com