1970's PROOF SETS

Hi All,

I would like to start a discussion about 1970's Proof Sets.
May we please start here and open to all opinions, experiences, questions, all input and future predictions.
Thanks, Ben Tampa FL

 

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I have never been too interested in the non silver proof sets. Most are worth around $5-10 and can't see them going much higher anytime soon in the future.

 

I am personally trying to complete my collection of these sets right now with some decent problem free sets. They are at some pretty competitive prices right now. If you are thinking of collecting these, my opinion is there won't be a better time then now to scoop up some of these. Look at the mintages and past values of these and see where you think the market is headed. I'm not saying they will appreciate next week, but they really can't go down in my opinion.

 

I agree on the statement that the original mint package takes up a lot of space and breaking them out into 2x2 takes less space. I would like to see opinions about this. Again I believe in Saflips and proper storage. What I really would like to know is what is the black material inside the Ike container; what is the compositon/materials that it is composed of produced by the United States Mint? Has the mint ever told anyone? Does anyone know? Is it archival?
Thanks, Ben Tampa FL

 

I really hope thousands upon thousands of people keep breaking up mint sets. It's part of my master plan!!!:devil:

 

I've always believed and still believe that coin collecting will be a mass hobby and there's little alternative to people collecting these moderns. They made an average of some three million of most of these with almost noone collecting moderns and now it's been as much as 40 years that these sets have been whittled down by time, tide, and corrosion. When the demand materializes more than half these sets will be gone. This doesn't mean they'll be valuable but it's hard to picture them being worth a few times face value as they are now. I imagine there will be an active and large market in all the individual coins and sets. These will be great starter sets of high quality for beginners.

Don't buy them for investment or you might wait longer than reasonable or they might "spoil" in your garage when you run out of storage room. But if you like nice quality and underappreciated these are great to stash a few back. They make a good collectible if you can learn to spot quality since there are some tough ones in high grade.

I think it will be a few years for these yet but they won't always just be "fluff" filling up bins at the corner shop.

 

I don't collect the proof sets but I do collect uncirculated sets and some of the modern commems. I keep all mine in their original mint packaging. I think if you look back historically there's always a premium if the sets are in their original packaging. It seems kind of a duty to preserve these as they come from the mint for future generations. I may not reap the benefits of doing this but hopefully somebody down the line will appreciate it.

 

As I recall, (in the early 70's) there was a limit of five (5) proof sets per customer. I'm not sure if that was a US Mint limit or just what my Father told us :smile...but I seem to recall it was a US Mint limit. Each year I would send in $25 I made doing yard work or delivering newspapers...and (eventually) I would get a blue box in the mail...loaded with five (5) proof sets. I could never figure out how to open those blue boxes without destroying them :scratch:...even today I find them baffling...they're like a Rubik's Cube.

Anyway, the sets were (and still are) beautiful!! I still have them all. At the time, I thought these sets were going to help me buy a car! Back then you could buy a decent used car for $500. I thought that would never change, but my '70s proof sets would be worth AT LEAST a couple hundred dollars (each) by now!!

What Happened?? :so-sad:

 

I don't mind picking up modern proof sets when I see toned coins in them. I try not to think about value and re-sell prices. I try to buy the coins for my collection.

 

collectively they make complete date & mm sets

I have all the proof & mint sets from the mid-1950s to date. Most of them from 1970 to date were not purchased directly from the mint. They are all in original mint packaging but I consider them as several complete date & mm sets. Collectively, they would make nice complete date & mm sets of cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, & dollars. That’s one reason to buy them all on the cheap today.

 

It is amazing how inexpensive these sets are today. This could be a very good opportunity to cherrypick some nice high quality or toned proof coins or even some varieties, but I would only buy if I could see them in hand. TC

 

You see the 70s sets a lot on the coin shows on TV, usually fairly cheap, so you know you can get them elsewhere even cheaper.

 

I think the mint sets are a gimme because of the sharply lower mintages, sharply higher attrition, and far more importantly,the potentially much higher demand. Additionally there is a huge range in quality for the mint sets and very few superb examples. The proof sets have no competition since they are both proof and most have the S mint mark but the BU's have no competition since people neglected to save rolls. Eventually the demand for nice attractive uncs will outstrip the tiny and dwindling supply.

Proofs have the advantage of widespread demand caused by quality and uncs have the advantage of scarcity and a very specific demand for those scarce coins. I think they'll both do well.

 

A while back I bought hundreds of the 1969-1972 Mint sets and OBW rolls to search for Denver minted Type-B Reverse Washington quarters. Breen claims that some of the used proof dies were sent to Denver in those years and there are some Denver minted Type-B reverses out there to be found. I've seen pictures, but never held one in my hand. Although I haven't found any Type-B reverses of those years (yet), I was able to cherry-pick some very clean, well struck examples worthy of certification one day. I found the best coins in the rolls. Mint sets? ...not so much.

 

You're right, of course, but my perspective is a little different.

My focus has mostly been on setting aside nice high quality examples of BU clads for future collectors. Obviously I was all wrong about these markets since I thought the very latest they could explode higher was 1986 and this is why I began promoting them at that time. In a nutshell I was wrong.

But from another perspective I was partially right since the market is already far larger than the supply of the top quality coins. I never imagined that superb gems would grow so far with gems going nowhere. But this is just indication of how tiny these markets are. There are very few top grade examples and very few who want them but the very few near top grades go begging because there's no demand.

Each year there is evidence of increasing demand. There are now thousands of clad quarter collectors and if they all went out and tried to finish their collections tomorrow we'd already have exploding prices. But prices are low and collectors can find choice examples if they are patient for very little cash so they wait and collect. I've seen these markets grow from the point I could name the collectors to now when some of the price moves are inexplicable. They are growing and it's merely a matter of time until the dwindling supply of mint sets bumps up against the growing demand. At the same time the supply of sets dwindles there is a slow process of people selecting out the choice examples making it more difficult to find the nice coins. Collectors will need more sets as their numbers decrease. There's also a steady degradation of the sets as issue after issue corrodes.

People simply don't realize that there are fewer uncirculated examples of most of the clad coins than there are 1950-D nickels. Unlike the '50-D nickels the majority of the uncirculated clads are unattractive examples and will be avoided by collectors in the future.

Of course it's astounding to me that this situation has persisted as long as it has. While it might never change odds are that it will come to an end. People are naturally nostalgic and coin collectors naturally collect coins. These are US coins and I will continue to believe that there day will come and that it's been long overdue.

 

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that these coins are coins you see in circulation everyday. People just don't think there's anything special about the mint sets because of that. Somewhere down the road when all our present coins are either redesigned, made with a different metal or are even eliminated, I think the demand will increase.

 

This just might be a factor.

Now that the eagle reverse quarters are seen less and less it just might prod people to try to put sets of them together. The incidence of the states and later issues is about 53% now and will increase very rapidly as the economy turns the corner since the percentage of new quarters in storage is higher and the production of new coins increases.

It could easily hit 60% in just three or four years. If there is drawdown in the eagle reverse coins caused by the government removing old, worn, and damaged coin it could go even higher. Couple in some drawdown by collectors and in ten years the old quarters can seem pretty elusive at times.

I play a game with the dimes looking for coins without mint marks. Despite all those astronomical mintages of the '65 to '67 and the many Philly dates up to 1980 you can still find a roll without a single mintmarkless coin in it. This is due to the higher attrition on dimes. Most will be permanently lost before they even wear down to Fine condition. These are the only circulating coins that are unchanged since 1965.

 

Give it time. There are an awful lot of mint sets that are only MS60 because there is no lower grade for uncirculated coins. Then there are all the sets that got the scissors over the years. It will take time, but all those higher grade sets will eventually command a premium once collectors realize how few and far in between they actually are.