Guide to Coin Price Guides
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The Redbook is currently published in six formats. The Redbook is released each year (usually in early April) in four different bindings (all with identical content):
Starting in 2016, an expanded version of the Redbook, known as the “Mega Red,” has been issued with the annual issues are shortly thereafter. At over 1600 pages, the Mega Red includes a lot of additional information not found in the regular versions of the Redbook including expanded price and grading information. Each year the Mega Red includes expanding coverage into one US coin type of or denomination that typically covers 600+/- pages. The subject matter for this expanded coverage varies from year-to-year. Finally, since 2008, a limited edition leather bound version of the Redbook has been issued for the serious Redbook collector. In the last few years, this was limited to 500 copies. |
Published annually since 2003 by Krause Publications, the US Coin Digest includes pricing for all circulating and non-circulating US coins. It is available only in the hidden spiral format. Its scope and content is very similar to the Redbook but put together by a different set of editors and published by a different publisher.
This complete reference to U.S. coins includes all circulating and non-circulating coins, from early American Token Coinage to modern commemorative issues of the 21st century. Pricing for each coin type is provided in a variety of the most commonly seen grades. Fully illustrated with more than 2,000 images, most of them in full color, the US Coin Digest is a comprehensive, fully researched and vetted color guide with values to all United States coins issues. |
The CPG Coin & Currency Market Review is published by CDN Publishing which is best known for its flagship The CDN Monthly Greysheet covered in Wholesale price guides below. Whitman Publishing and Krause Publications publish a wide variety of numismatic, philatelic and other collectibles books every year. As part of their wide array of titles, they also publish coin price guides. In contrast, CDN Publishing’s entire focus is coin and banknote pricing. All of their effort and all of their publications focus on numismatic pricing. Numismatic pricing is their business. This focus has resulted in CDN Publications’ Greysheet being far and away the leading wholesale price guide in the industry. Beginning in 2017, CDN branched out and brought their experience to the retail side of coin pricing with the publication of The CPG Coin & Currency Market Review. The CPG Coin & Currency Market Review is published quarterly in magazine format and is available as either a single issue or annual subscription. The quarterly schedule for The CPG Coin & Currency Market Review allows it to adjust more timely to price changes in the market than the annually published guides. In addition to pricing, each issue of The CPG Coin & Currency Market Review includes a feature article along with some market commentary and another article or two. But, the primary focus is pricing. It does not include grading information, mintage statistics or other the other basic information included in the price guides covered above. |
The CAC Rare Coin Market Review Certified Acceptance Corporation (CAC) verifies coins previously graded by PCGS or NGC and award their CAC sticker only to those coins that are solid or premium quality for their assigned grade. The CAC Rare Coin Market Review, also published by CDN Publishing, focuses exclusively on retail pricing for these CAC-approved certified coins. Like The CPG Coin & Currency Market Review, The CAC Rare Coin Market Review is published quarterly in magazine format and is available as either a single issue or annual subscription. Each issue includes a few short articles or editorials related to CAC and CAC coin pricing. |
The Coin Collector's Assistant The Coin Collector's Assistant is coin collection inventory software. It is available in both PC and Mac formats and includes current pricing information for all US coins. Future pricing updates are available from the publisher on a subscription basis. Add-ons are available to expand the data and prices into US currency, world coins and ancient coins. |
PCGS and NGC Price Guides Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) are the two leading coin grading and certification companies. Both companies publish retail price guides for coins they have graded that currently reside in their holders. Both the PCGS Price Guide and the NGC Price Guide are free online only guides. |
Wholesale Coin Price Guides The CDN Monthly Greysheet
Each issue of the Greysheet includes a few short articles, editorials and/or commentary focused on the coin market or coin pricing. Aimed at dealers, the Greysheet assumes the reader knows how to grade coins. No grading descriptions, mintage figures or other non-pricing information is included. Greysheet pricing is most commonly used in dealer-to-dealer transactions. Dealer-to-collector transactions are one (or more) step(s) removed from the dealer-to-dealer transactions represented by Greysheet pricing. Thus, a dealer’s whole buy price from collectors is usually lower than these dealer-to-dealer prices and the prices dealers charge collectors are typically higher than Greysheet prices. As a result, Greysheet pricing is usually somewhere in between the two price levels a collector normally encounters. With pricing in the middle, dealers often use the Greysheet for both buying and selling by subtracting or adding their desired margin to the published Greysheet prices. This eliminates the need for two separate price guides. |
The Official Blue Book: A Guide Book of United States Coins
Like the Redbook, the Bluebook is published annually (usually releasing in early May). It is available in two formats (paperback and hardcover), both of which have identical content. |
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