WHITMAN PUBLISHING'S 2023 NEW BOOKS

Whitman Publishing announces a slate of new books and hobby supplies that will be available in 2023. The lineup includes titles on U.S. and world coins, tokens and medals, numismatic history, and memoirs, as well as archival-quality Whitman and H.E. Harris folders, albums, and other display and storage products.

Founded in 1916, Whitman is the world's leading producer of numismatic reference books, supplies, and products to display and store coins and paper money. The company will release new folders and albums for the American Women quarters and other United States Mint coins, and continues its Glorifier Series of magnetic-closure acrylic display cases.

Several volumes of Whitman's best-selling Bowers Series will be updated in new editions in 2023. These include guide books on Morgan silver dollars; Liberty Seated silver coins; the dimes, quarters, and half dollars designed by Charles E. Barber; Franklin and Kennedy half dollars; Lincoln cents; and $20 double eagle gold coins.

The newest volume in the Bowers Series (no. 27), the Guide Book of American Silver Eagles, by Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez, is now available.

The 15th edition of R.S. Yeoman's Catalog of Modern World Coins, 1850–1964, has been updated and fully revised by editor Arthur L. Friedberg and a team of pricing specialists from around the world.

The Guide Book of United States Coins and the Handbook of United States Coins—the hobby's best-selling Red Book and Blue Book—will be released this spring in their 77th and 81st editions, respectively.

The 9th edition of Mega Red, the 1,504-page deluxe version of the Red Book, features a detailed coin-by-coin study of quarter eagle gold coins, along with its usual expanded coverage of every U.S. coin series.

The latest Cherrypickers' Guide will debut in 2023—the 6th edition, volume II, covering die varieties of half dimes, dimes, twenty-cent pieces, and quarter dollars, 1800s to date.

The 2nd edition of James A. Haxby's Guide Book of Canadian Coins and Tokens will roll out for the holiday season. This follows on Harvey B. Richer's 100 Greatest Canadian Coins and Tokens, published in 2022.

John Kraljevich's Freedom Will Be Ours: Medals and Money in Black America is an exploration of the experience of Black Americans as commemorated by, described by, or related to numismatic material culture—tokens, medals, coins, paper money, privately issued scrip—and tangential but important items such as slave tags and military awards.

Famed collector and antiquities dealer Kenneth W. Rendell, a founding member of the Rittenhouse Society and a contemporary of Q. David Bowers, will share his memoirs in Safeguarding History: Trailblazing Adventures Inside the Worlds of Collecting and Forging History.

In the world of stamp-collecting, H.E. Harris & Co., a Whitman subsidiary, will publish a number of new philatelic supplements in 2023. Its annual US/BNA Postage Stamp Catalog will be available in November. Billed as America's Best-Selling Stamp Price Guide, US/BNA covers stamps of the United States and U.S. possessions, the United Nations, and British North America (Canada and its provinces).

Whitman Publishing is the Official Supplier of the American Numismatic Association. As a benefit of membership in the ANA, members can borrow Whitman books for free from the Association's Dwight N. Manley Numismatic Library, and also receive 10% off all Whitman purchases. Details are at www.money.org.

More detailed information will be released about individual new books and products as their release dates approach.

There's a lot to be excited about here, in both the new and updated titles. With the demise and breakup of the Krause Standard Catalog business there has been an opportunity for other publishers to fill the gap in the market. CDN Publishing recently acquired and expanded The Banknote Book to cover world paper money, and now Whitman is stepping up to address world coin prices with a 15th edition of Yeoman's Catalog of Modern World Coins, 1850–1964.

The 14th edition appeared 15 years ago in 2008; the 13th edition came out 40 years ago in 1983. What will the new 15th edition offer? The world's a big place - what to leave in, what to leave out? The good folks at Whitman wrestle with those issues daily in updating the Red Book. Will the "Brown Book" become an annual production? Is it a stepping stone to a "Mega" version, a phone-book-sized deluxe edition like the old Krause catalogs? Can any physical print product keep up with the fast-changing numismatic marketplace? Well, the Red Book has survived and thrives in the internet age, showing that there is indeed a niche for such a publication. We'll look forward to future developments.

John Kraljevich's new book will be groundbreaking - nothing like it has been published before, certainly not in one handy volume. Such works tend to spark new waves of collectors, and perhaps this one will draw a younger and more diverse demographic to the hobby. That will require marketing it beyond the usual numismatic outlets, but Whitman is up to the task. The problem will be that much of the material discussed is quite rare, and we may see prices rising without a large influx of collectors.

Ken Rendell's book could offer an interesting look into the history of both numismatics and the autograph and rare document fields, where he migrated after early dealings in coins.

Thanks to Whitman for this preview of the coming year; we'll look forward to more details on each and every book. -Editor