Redbook Changes Over the Years

[Recyclersteve]

I'd like to start a new thread and this likely could become a sticky, tracking thread, or whatever you want to call it. The purpose of the thread is to track changes made in the Redbooks over the years. I, for one, face the daunting task of trying to spend time comparing this year's Redbook with last year's in order to see what price changes have occurred. In general, I'd like to forget about insignificant ones. If an older Lincoln penny in AU went from 10 cents to 15 cents over the last year, I don't really care. But if the price of a 1909-S-VDB went up by $100 in VF, I'm interested.

And the changes don't have to necessarily be price related. For instance, shortly after the mintages for the 2009 nickels and dimes were included, I noticed in the 2014 Redbook that the 2009-D nickel had a mintage of 468,000,000. I remember writing to the folks at the Redbook and they subsequently changed it to the correct 46.8 million figure. Note that in 2013 they had the mintage correct, but somebody added another zero before the 2014 edition was printed.

I will mention another item that I saw a while back. In the 2014 Redbook all of the 1905 Barber quarters went up sharply in value, even in just Good condition. Look at the following changes:

1905-P 2013 = $14...2014 = $30 (up 114%)
1905-O 2013 = $18...2014 = $40 (up 122%)
1905-S 2013 = $14...2014 = $30 (up 114%)

Does anyone know what triggered more than a double on the prices for the 1905 quarters? I figure that perhaps someone influential (like perhaps Q. David Bowers) wrote a book saying that the number of coins still around that haven't been melted, etc. was quite low. I'd love to know if someone else has a good theory about this one.

I remember buying some of these very cheaply shortly after the increase occurred. It seems like lots of people had no idea how much they had gone up. FYI- Those prices are still the same in the 2020 Redbook.

For me to include all my thoughts on this topic would take some time. I don't want to waste my time unless there are plenty of others here who still are interested in the Red Book and still use it. So, my question is- How many people would like to see this type of discussion thread?

P.S. For those who are early in the stages of their coin collecting days, the Redbook usually comes out about April. So the 2020 Edition was available in April 2019.

[coppernickel]

All prices are adjusted to supply and demand. One person deciding to buy a set of coins for Grandpa's birth year for the family could have made the price spike like that. Just a dozen or so of the same coin being requested can make the market spike like that.

The coin market is really small when you look at it numismatically. Stackers willing to accept any silver coin will not effect the market in the same manner.

I recently found some Blue and Red Books from Thriftbooks.com, most for less than $10. I bought most of the 2000s and some from the 1960s and 1970s. 1964 is the most interesting year. 1964 was the last year money was silver. I even have a reprint of the first edition.

[Recyclersteve]

I'd like to respectfully disagree with the thought that buying a dozen of the same date can change the pricing (making it more than double) and cause it to stay up for 6 years. About that same time of the spike in the 1905 quarters, I bought 50-100 each of a couple of the Barbers (a dime and a quarter). No, my buying didn't cause the market to flinch. And, no, I wasn't buying common dates either.

I'd say that if someone tried to buy perhaps 1,000 coins of each date over a fairly short time AND they were well respected in the community AND had a large audience (newsletter going out to several thousand perhaps), perhaps they would have the oomph to move the market somewhat. But the artificial spikes are often ones which can go back down over the next 6-12 months and that didn't happen here.

Also, I check the greysheet as well and the prices spiked there too and have help up. Sometimes the Redbook will have a spiked price printed in an edition but the greysheet doesn't seem to agree- at least not for long. In the case of the 1905 quarters (all 3 mints), they both agreed.

I don't have a recent greysheet. Does anyone have the prices of the 1905 quarters in Good condition from a greysheet that was published in the last few months? If you can add those prices to this thread, I'd really appreciate it.

[coppernickel]

I'd like to respectfully disagree with the thought that buying a dozen of the same date can change the pricing (making it more than double) and cause it to stay up for 6 years. About that same time of the spike in the 1905 quarters, I bought 50-100 each of a couple of the Barbers (a dime and a quarter). No, my buying didn't cause the market to flinch. And, no, I wasn't buying common dates either.

I'd say that if someone tried to buy perhaps 1,000 coins of each date over a fairly short time AND they were well respected in the community AND had a large audience (newsletter going out to several thousand perhaps), perhaps they would have the oomph to move the market somewhat. But the artificial spikes are often ones which can go back down over the next 6-12 months and that didn't happen here.

Thank you. The specific numismatic coin I know a little about is the 1970 Denver Half Dollar. For several years when I wanted one the price was high. Recently, I had the opportunity to buy a matched pair, both slabbed in MS60 for a total of $30. My presumptions extrapolated from this clearly did not cross to the older quarters and halfs.

[Recyclersteve]

I even have a reprint of the first edition.

Those reprints of the first edition are VERY NICE books. I probably should have bought 5-10 copies when I bought mine.