Red Book has incorrect mintage information for last 50 years
dbldie55
Posts: 7,742 ✭✭✭✭✭
I was going through the monthly mintage reports Roger put up on the NNP. I found a discrepancy with what I have listed for 1902 Liberty Nickels. I had 31,489,579. The reports Roger put up shows 31,480,579 for 1902. I knew I had pulled this info from the Red Book. In checking, I first looked at my 1965 copy of the Annual Report, and it also shows 31,480,579. I then went through the Red Books. I found the number changed in 1968. I also had a 1994 "Black Book" laying around, and it shows the correct number.
I also found CoinFacts is off as well on a few dates. They have slightly different numbers for 1885, 1896, 1902 and 1903.
Collector and Researcher of Liberty Head Nickels. ANA LM-6053
0
Comments
There may be a million individual characters in the Redbook. A few of them are going to be keypunched incorrectly. Drop them a small note and they will fix it in future editions. No need to make a big deal out of it here.
https://archive.org/stream/Rg104entry271vol5#page/n106/mode/1up
Directors' Annual Reports state:
1885 1,476490
1896 8,842,920
1902 31,480,579
1903 28,006,725
Pages came out OK on NNP. Swivel your monitor a little to the left to correct perspective.
I’m still hoping they correct commemorative mintages going back to 2010. Some are wildly incorrect. Many were updated on the Mint website in late 2016.
31,489,579 versus 31,480,579 just means somebody hit the wrong key on a typewriter or Linotype machine. The 'nine' and the 'zero' keys usually lie side-by-side.
The pages came out fine. I really appreciate the work you put in to this. I was pointing out that Coin Facts has them listed incorrect (off by 5, 10, 20 and 300)
It is data. It changes, get over it.
typo, no biggie
BHNC #203
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
Most publications have errors, especially those with extensive figures. Even news publications (who presumably have spellcheck) are fraught with misspellings and grammatical errors. Cheers, RickO
The OP's point is that when we have access to original data, we have the opportunity to correct errors in published documents. The cause of the error is less important than making a timely correction.
[Side bar: One difficulty encountered at NARA is that they refuse to permit use of clear plastic flattening plates when photographing bound pages. This results in awkward perspective due to curvature of pages. That was the origin of my semi-humorous "swivel your monitor" comment.]
its gonna happen regardless.
"If a book on error coins had a mistake, how would you know?"
--- Lincoln Vanderblatt
"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken!"
Mahatma Kane Jeeves
Does this mean I should sell all I have or buy more.
Have notified the local and national papers??
By all means.
I just love the way people used to write back in the day...so artistic...and sometimes hard to decipher.
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Probably not noticed since after 31,4...... its just noise to most folks. The blue Whitman folders have the right idea: "31.4 MILLION".
If you collect $3 Gold you don't have this problem.
I don't have this problem regardless.............
It's no sweat off of my Buffs.
Pete