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Red Book - What Year Goes on the Cover?
Onastone
Posts: 4,130 ✭✭✭✭✭
The 2026 edition is out now, as you well know, and we still have a lot of 2025 left to go. By the time 2025 ends, your Redbook is probably already ahead printing 2027. So why is the Redbook printing next year on the covers? When does everything minted in 2025 end up in print? I love the Redbook and have three Mega Books, but the timing of the year printed on the Redbook's covers just has me wondering!!!!!!
Looking at it from another angle, you have a coin from 2026 and grab the 2026 edition, only to find out there isn't one coin in it from 2026...you actually need the 2028 issue. 
@JohnF (please help!)
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That's just the way that they always have dated the Redbook going back many decades. The pricing is better now as it sort of a very recent (just before publication) CPG retail number. If you want more frequent updates subscribe to the Greysheet product that meets your needs, they have wholesale and retail pricing as often as online up to the latest that they are aware of all the way out to the annual in the Redbook.
Personally, I recommend using HA and GC recent auction results for mid to higher end coins and EBay sold items for the common lower price things to compare pricing and you can see the actual coin to make adjustments depending on what you seek.
Back in the day, the Red Book sort of distributed mid year so the following year traditionally has been on the cover except for most of pre 1960 editions
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
there's a back story as to how the date is 1 year forward. i just can't remember it
I know there's a good reason, just trying to reason it out...it's all about timing and publishing and sales I think.
I think the original reasoning back when the Redbook began would have been, "The Redbook that you're supposed to use as your daily price guide in 2026" will be the one with "2026" on the cover. On the reasoning that, on January 1 2026, the "2026" Redbook will be the most recent one in existence and therefore the most accurate.
It's kind of a redundant philosophy these days as very few people use the Redbook as a daily price guide. But, it's too late to change things now. If next year they decided to switch to a "put the current year on the cover" model, that would mean there'd be two different "2026 Red books", the made-in-2025 one and the made-in-2026 one. They'd have to decide to stop printing a new Redbook one year in order to catch up.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
Didn't they print two versions of 44 or smth like that?
God comes first in everything I do. I’m dedicated to serving Him with my whole life. Coin collecting is just a hobby—but even in that, I seek to honor Him. ✝️
Same goes with automobiles, nothing new, all a marketing gimick.
Production schedules are pretty crazy and it does seem aggressive to me to release the 2026 edition in May 2025, but this is the production schedule we inherited when we acquired Whitman. We plan to move the release back a few months next year for the logical reasons mentioned already. I'd love to see the book released around the time of the ANA Worlds Fair of Money show. There are a lot of moving parts but we are working on it along with many other innovations at CDN-Whitman.
John
Whitman Brands: President/CEO (www.greysheet.com; www.whitman.com)
PNG: Executive Director (www.pngdealers.org)
Longer selling period that way.
I have to read twice when I see CPG. I'm still thinking Cherrypickers Guide when I see it associated with Whitman.
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
I believe this was part of the strategy. However, there's is a balance in getting this right. For example, we would have an even longer selling period if we dated the book 2027 but that would be ridiculous. We are trying to find the right balance.
Whitman Brands: President/CEO (www.greysheet.com; www.whitman.com)
PNG: Executive Director (www.pngdealers.org)
Marketing, pure and simple. The later date gives the book more shelf life.
They publish approx. April (2025), which is dated 2026 because it will be on sale at the end of the year. If you sell a 2025 book at the end of 2025, everybody thinks it's "last year's". Whatever book you want to be selling needs NEXT year's date.
The prices are collected Sep-Nov 2024, which is one reason the Red Book is a poor choice for pricing.
'
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
My first edition has the date of 1947 on the cover yet 1946 as the copyright date.
peacockcoins
what little i recall was there was some delay in 46that pushed out the pub date so far they put 47 on it
They are much more accurate now than they used to be a few years ago. It's handy now for getting a general value for a coin. Heritage, Great Collections, and even eBay auction prices still remain the best way to estimate market value for significantly valuable coins.
Oh good point, I just checked, the 2026 has a copyright of 2025.
Having a year on the cover does make it a timely issue...like calendars sell like crazy in December/January but slow way down after that.
(I used to buy the hardback copies, but really like the bigger rings on the newest Redbook, very convenient.)