Misleading modern mintages in Red Book

OnlyBuffalos

I sometimes wonder if collectors purchase a coin they normally would not buy, based on mintage figures listed in the Red Book especially for modern coins. For example, the Red Book list the mintage for the 2002W Salt Lake Olympic $5 as 5,727 in MS which would make in one of the rarest modern $5 commemoratives.

The informed collector knows this may be incorrect as it probably does not include the four coin commemorative set which had an issue quantity of around 5,000.

How much speculation does this incorrect listing foster by those who don't know the true population figures? Are there other misleading modern population figures in the Red Book?

And does anyone known the correct figure for the SLO $5 coin?

Steve

Another misleading mintage figures in the Red Book are the proof mintages for 1909 thru 1916 coins (1 cent thru 50 cent). All were changed in the 2005 book to represent manufactured quantities instead of sold quantities which has traditionally been reported. The Red Book is the only guide now using these new numbers. I have been in contact with Ken Bressert to try to get them changed back. As regards to the modern numbers, my guess is that Red Book will adjust as they get new updates from the US Mint which has been taking their good time updating combo numbers. Steve