Thread: Assembling a Set of Eisenhower Dollars

Originally Posted by CamaroDMD

I was thinking if might be fun to do an Ike set. Now that I'm through school and starting work next week, I feel that I should start a "coin project." The way I see it...a smaller set would be a fun project. Plus, with Ike's even the basic set has a ton of variety. There are business strikes (both silver and clad), proofs (both silver and clad), varieties, Bicentennial dates, and they are a big coin (which is always fun). I just think it would be a fun set.

My thought for this set was to do a slabbed set. I know a lot of people don't like slabbed coins, but I do and I have never assembled a slabbed set (PCGS and NGC only). Obviously, I will scrutinize each coin prior to buying it (like I always do). For the first time, I think I will set a specific grade threshold for the set. My goal is to have a nice looking set when all is said and done but I'm not doing a "registry set." I want it to be affordable (it's for fun, not an investment)...but again still nice quality.

After doing a little research...I think the following "grade goals" for the set is reasonable and affordable:

Clad BU: MS65
Silver BU: MS67
Proof: PF69 DCAM

From what I have seen, when the business strike clad coins go MS66+ their prices tend to go very high very quickly. I know these are large coins and prone to getting dinged up...but I feel like MS65 is a nice balance of affordability and esthetics.

Also, here is what I define a "complete set" as:

1971
1971-D
1971-S 40% Silver
1971-S Proof 40% Silver

1972 Type 1
1972 Type 2
1972 Type 3
1972-D
1972-S 40% Silver
1972-S Proof 40% Silver

1973
1973-D
1973-S Proof
1973-S 40% Silver
1973-S Proof 40% Silver

1974
1974-D
1974-S Proof
1974-S 40% Silver
1974-S Proof 40% Silver

1776-1976 Type 1
1776-1976 Type 2
1776-1976-D Type 1
1776-1976-D Type 2
1776-1976-S Proof Type 1
1776-1976-S Proof Type 2
1776-1976-S 40% Silver
1776-1976-S Proof 40% Silver

1977
1977-D
1977-S Proof

1978
1978-D
1978-S Proof

What do you think of this project?

For those of you who collect Ike's, any advice for me?

Thanks.

there are so many different kinds of Ikes can can't even tell what i have anymore.

Originally Posted by bkprewitt

Just my personal opinion, but I think you need to add one more coin to the set: the 1971D FEV. Redbook doesn't have it, but should.

Its just a matter of time. It is now in the latest edition of the Cherrypickers guide and PCGS now has it listed as one of the required Ikes for their complete variety set. Give it another year or two.

FEV? Translation guys. I don't do well with acronyms after my second bourbon........

Friendly Eagle Variety.

You know...I actually think I have a nice MS 1971-D FEV that I got from someone on here a while back. I will have to dig it out, but I'm pretty sure I have one.

Thanks Ruben. Does the guy welcome you to the forum and shake your hand? What's so friendly about the little bugger?

Originally Posted by mrbrklyn

there are so many different kinds of Ikes can can't even tell what i have anymore.

I know these coins have become extremely popular with a specific group of collectors and they have really documented die varieties nicely. So, my understanding is there are many varieties if you want to collect them. I personally am only interested in assembling a fairly basic set. That said, the 1971-D FEV is probably a good fit for my set.

Originally Posted by green18

Thanks Ruben. Does the guy welcome you to the forum and shake your hand? What's so friendly about the little bugger?

This site has all the information about the variety. Basically, one of the die markers is the eagle doesn't have a brow line...which makes him appear more friendly.

http://ikegroup.org/FEV.htm

Friendly Eagle vs. Mean Eagle = one less eye brow.

Originally Posted by green18

Thanks Ruben. Does the guy welcome you to the forum and shake your hand? What's so friendly about the little bugger?

It had to do with cold war politics actually

http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/ikes.html

Originally Posted by CamaroDMD

You know...I actually think I have a nice MS 1971-D FEV that I got from someone on here a while back. I will have to dig it out, but I'm pretty sure I have one.

OK...I was wrong. I dug out the coin tonight and it's not an FEV. What I have is a 1971-D Talon Head Variety. This is a die clash variety. Oh, well...it's still a nice piece.

Does anyone know what Ike varieties that PCGS recognizes?

Eisenhower Dollars - Mintage History

I can't even find my photograph of my FEV Ikes and I have 3 of them! I'm going to have to pull them out and reshoot them all.

The initial minting of the Eisenhower Dollar breaks down to 3 basic groups and several varieties within these groups. The mint distributed a clad circulating version from Philadelphia and Denver and the Silver versions from San Francisco. The Philadelphia mintage was 47,799,000 coins and the Denver mintage was 68,587,424 coins. The odd number is not explained. San Fransico produced a shade less than 7 million silver circulated coins and about 4.26 million proofs. One of the major characteristics of the 1971 run was that the mint had to make minor alterations of the design for smooth production. This resulted in at least one major variety out of Denver called the Friendly Eagle Variety (FEV), many of which were actually struck on proof planchets which were excess from the west coast proof production.

According to the research done by the Ike Group, it seems that the FEV variety was likely the first design intended for the standard strikes for all the clad Ikes and the silver uncirculated strikes. But after testing in Philedelphia, it was modified because of production problems. The Denver mint, however, started early, likely with spare older single chamber presses that most normally would be used for gold coinage production. To my knowledge, there was no standard gold coin production at the time so you can only imagine how anxious Denver must have been about the new cartwheel dollars and getting the coins to Las Vegas if they push these presses into action. With only the original FEV design available, they produced perhaps 500,000 1971-D FEVs and about 10% of those seem to be minted on proof planchets that were extras from the San Francisco Mint. There has also been a debate as to whether this Friendly Eagle Variety is a Variety or a pattern. The consensus is that it is a varity but you may find in the literature the coin referee to as FEP as well as FEV. Articles on the variety have been written in the coin press including July 2007issue of NUMISMATIST.

When I put together a registry set of Ikes, I chose to collect in "top pop minus 1 grade". I could never justify paying the multiples that the top-pop coins fetched, and the thought being, if I chose really attractive examples of those coins, I should do OK. It remains to be seen if I accomplished that goal or not, but I do know I learned a lot through collecting Ikes.

My advice: Look at as many coins as possible. Try and select good coins for the grade as there's quite a bit of variability within a grade, and some of your coins, even in 65, are going to be pricey.

I think Ikes have a lot going for them, and being collectible at virtually any price levels is among them....Mike

I'm not spending 300 bucks on an Ike ... I don't care