After the initial email from Scott, subsequent communications with him revealed that he had tread a pretty well-traveled path in his quest to find the 1987 Special ANA Red Book, (and thereby complete the Red Book collection he had dreamed of finishing nearly all his life.) Scott was pretty serious when he said that he had a copy of every Red Book except one: he even has both versions of the 1947 Red Book first edition! I contacted numerous coin and book dealers who said they'd love to just see a copy of this book, much less get one in stock. Several of the dealers already knew of Scott. They all told me this book is extremely rare and that I would be very lucky to find a copy of it for sale anywhere.
After these not-very-encouraging responses, I decided to expand the search beyond the normal channels and started contacting numismatic libraries, coin clubs, and well-known (and well-heeled) collectors. I actually located several copies of the 1987 Special ANA edition, but none of them were for sale at any price!
The Red Book Dream Collection is Finally Completed!
I decided to write an article about Scott's search and reach out to the collector community en masse. It took the better part of a year, but finally I got an email from a collector in Wisconsin who had attended the 1986 ANA banquet in Milwaukee where the books had been distributed. He had two copies of the 1987 ANA Red Book, because his wife had gone to the banquet with him, so I put him in touch with Scott.
Several days later, I received a jubilant email from Scott, effusively thanking me for helping him complete his dream-come-true collection of every single Red Book that had ever been published. As Scott points out, this is a collection that only 500 people in the world can ever complete. (The total is probably really only about 300 to 350, based on estimates of the number of Red Books left behind on banquet tables in Milwaukee the night these were given out.)
Future Red Book Editions
Now that Scott has completed his Red Book collection, he can't rest on his laurels, because several new editions of the Red Book have been coming out every year for the past few years. For 2007, there were eight different editions of the Red Book! These included variations such as hardcover, softcover, spiral binding, and leather covers; tribute editions to the original 1947 Red Book (in hardcover and limited edition leather covers;) and special editions for Michigan and for the ANA. With so many different versions of the Red Book coming out each year now, Scott might be spending more money on Red Books than he does on the coins they describe!
