The Rarest Red Book Ever Published

The Special ANA 40th Annual 1987 Red Book

The rarest Red Book of the entire series, spanning 60 years going back to 1947, isn't the First Edition, as many people would have thought!  The rarest Red Book was printed for 1987 - it's the 40th Annual Red Book with the special ANA Cover.  Only 500 copies of this special edition were made, and they were given to the attendees of the 95th annual ANA banquet at the Milwaukee convention in 1986.  This edition was never sold to the public.

The cover of this rarest of Red Books has a circular imprint bearing the portraits of three of Wisconsin's greatest numismatists, along with text that reads, "95th Anniversary Convention Milwaukee 1986" around an outline of the State of Wisconsin and the words "Saluting Wisconsin's Greatest Numismatists."  Outline portraits, with their names below, of the numismatists being featured include Henry C. Granberg (left,) Chester Krause (center,) and R.S. "Dick" Yeoman (right.)  Here is a nice large detail image of the special imprint that appears only on the covers of these precious 500 copies:

This is a photo of the entire book:

Learn more about the U.S. Coins Red Book, what it is used for, and why most U.S. collectors consider it to be their key coin price reference in a book review of the Red Book.

Red Book photos are courtesy of the American Numismatic Association (ANA.)  The "Red Book" (A Guide Book of United States Coins) is copyrighted by Whitman Publishing.