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Summary: The Red Book, This Year
Comment:
The Red Book is the guide. I recommend it. If you don't have a coin collector's guide to retail pricing, the Red Book is the first one to buy. Know this: The Red Book is Whitman's guide to retail value, and the Blue Book is Whitman's dealer-price guide.
I'll put my biggest issue with 2005's edition up front: The hard cover version, at least, has given us a wretched font change since its 2004 edition. It's a smaller and thinner typeface -- I don't know the name of the font, but I think I'll take out my loupe just to look up a coin!
The color images (last year = black and white) are nice. Two caveats: 1) For "the guide" I can't help but wonder why their visual examples aren't top-of-the-line (e.g., a photo of a double die or a 3/2 are typically not stellar examples), 2) Along with the color images, the paper has changed to a more magazine-type feel, and is of thinner/lighter-weight variety. It has more pages, but is actually a thinner book than 2004's. As you "break it in," the pages become easier to turn.
2005 has one extra grading category, adding another level of price. This still doesn't equal as many categories as current grading companies use. If we think of it as a price guide, and not a book about grading (i.e., there is some, but not comprehensive information about how to grade), it does its job. The number of grades, and which grades, given for each coin differ from coin to coin, but as an example it can read: EF40, AU50, MS60, MS65, PF, without the in-between numbers grading companies use.
Guide vs. true-retail price: One highly ignored issue is that the prices don't address or reflect online / auction coin-buying retail value, which is a large market. So, for selling online, or buying online, this is truly a guidebook, not definitive. A coin can sell online for twice, or half, the listed Red Book value. Or wildly to either side. I would guess the prices reflect more of what to expect to pay at a coin shop.
Regarding another review I read at Amazon -- 2004's edition does have the coin history, too, and I agree that it is a very interesting read.
Overall, if you're price-conscious I'd say buy a used one from last year. My primary reason for writing that is because it is so much more a guide than a set-in-stone reality. If you've not bought a Red Book yet, or want to see this year's model, do. I'm glad I did, and the more I use it, the more used to it I am becoming.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No ratings for Ms-64/65 grades
Comment: If I'd known the book did not track the higher grades, I would not have bought it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent edition; recommended for all
Comment: Kudos to Mr. Bressett on this edition. I would recommend this to anyone just starting to collect coins, or who hasn't picked up a copy of this reference in a few years. The Whitman ads that offended me in the 2004 edition have been largely addressed. While there are seven full pages of ads (no longer all from Whitman) still present, five of them have been pushed to the very front or back of the book. If the two remaining pages of ads smack dab in the middle were moved to either end as well, this would be a five-star book. Or if the price was markedly decreased with the additional ad revenue.
That said, there were some great additions: The introduction has been improved with a summary of abbreviations used throughout the book. An additional column of grades has been added with the early coinage, which is nice. The poor quality of images from the 2004 edition have been addressed - one or two slipped through, but by and large all of them are good. The value table for the misstrikes has been dropped, which is probably a good idea - misstrikes are fickle creatures when it comes to value. The misstrikes layout is also very nicely redone. The hard times tokens are back, and the patterns section was kept. Near the very end, a few new notes from Q. David Bowers really enhance the sense of what numismatics is about - that there is a rich history not only of the coins themselves but within the collecting community as well. Last but not least, a very nice glossary is included at the end.
Oddly the `additional contributors' section was dropped; not a big deal to the casual reader - I don't know how the contributors feel. The commemorative section has a plethora of new images and some layout changes, with mixed results.
Overall, this is an excellent edition. Meaningful additions were made and existing materials enhanced. I would recommend this edition to anyone looking for a good coin reference.
[Addendum]: It is true that the market prices can be very different than the prices listed in the book - some of this reflects natural fluctuations in the marketplace, as well as reference points - rarer coins have very few public transactions to estimate value. I agree that the prices should not be viewed as definitive.
As for the lack of some MS-state values - valuation of coins increases exponentially between MS-63 and MS-70. The editor appears to have selected popularly available grades for the appropriate denomination. In my opinion, it is a reasonable balance between useful information and keeping the guide to a reasonable size. Such detailed information would not be meaningful in an annual guide.
Those who seek current market values for very specific grades can find them online.
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