I am new to coin collecting and the one thing I have learned so far is there is a lot of info to know. So I apologize if this is a dumb question...I am trying to figure out why the 1982 Washington Half Dollar is valued so much higher for the Denver mint than the San Francisco mint. The Denver mint minted 4.8 million coins and San Francisco minted 2.2 million. There is also a big difference between MS70 and MS69. But I understand why that is. Was there possibly a large melting of the Denver coins? I thank you in advance for your assistance.
i am pretty sure i know the answer to this, but if someone else knows better please do follow. this particular coin is not the only case where it holds true also. many times the proof version holds lower value, even if its mintage is high. proofs naturally are collected and preserved. business strikes are not as likely to be kept in pristine condition if only for the reason they are not as easily distinguished by their sheen/cameo. i have both of these in their OGP, they were one of the first things i collected as a child. in this particular case they look the same, just a maroon versus a bluish box. sometimes people need that 50cents and they crack them out and spend them not knowing they are silver/collectable. if you were holding both in your hand, were uneducated, which would you spend? the shiny matte and mirror one or the just shiny one?
i think i was wrong. the denver mint treated them as regular coins, lowering the number that were coming out in higher grades.... http://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?IDArticle=665
According to the 2014 redbook... Denver was 2.2 mil and San Francisco was 4.8 million. The Denver coins being uncirculated and the SF being proofs.
most 1982 and 1983 coins are worth a considerable more in MS conditions because the mint didn't sell any unc sets for these years. So that means collectors today have to find MS 1982,83 coins that were saved from normal coin distribution back 30 years ago. Rumors is the mint concentrated more on commemorative coins at the time.
sorry ...thanks for pointing that out ... at my coin club ..it seems that they go for about the same and looking on ebay they seem to be about the same too...im not sure about grading between a 69 and 70
i've noticed that there is usually more of a collector demand for a high grade MS coin than for a proof coin, therefore the denver coin will demand a higher premium than the S.F. proof coin....
i think the article i posted summed it up as much as could be possible. the denver minted business strikes were not cared for as special edition coins, but as simple regular currency, hence, the condition of the coins produced were not as high as one would expect and resulted in lower, high grade coins.
I can agree with that for the most part. But I don't agree with this. The '82 Washington commem was the first modern commem. There had been no commem coins minted or issued since the series ended in the 1950's due to overwhelming collector disinterest. The mint had been producing commems for decades by the '50s, and large numbers of them. It seemed like almost any old reason was good enough for producing another commem. Many were even repeated over several years. Simply put collectors were tired of them. And even now, 50, 75, almost a 100 years later in some cases, collectors for the most part are still tired of early commems. So when the mint started up again in '82 with the Washington commems, those memories were still all too fresh among collectors and the Washington was too popular. But it didn't have anything to do with the quality of the coins they were producing. And the mint did not purposely produce lower quality coins. On the contrary, the mint had high hopes for the coins and were trying to spark collector interest in commems again after an almost 30 years hiatus. But at that time the mint operated under different policies than they do today. It wasn't that they intentionally tried to produce low quality Unc commems, it was they didn't intentionally try to produce high quality Unc commems. Back then, those efforts to produce high quality coins were only expended on Proofs. As for the value difference between Proof versions and Unc versions, it's pretty much a general rule across the board that high grade Unc versions of coins are worth more than Proofs of an equal grade. And what I just explained above is the reason for it, always has been. It's because high grade Unc versions are pretty scarce while high grade Proofs versions are pretty common.
So Barry? You've got the lowdown for quarters and commems from 1982. Still confused? Welcome to the forum.........
Wow! Great info! I really appreciate all the responses. You guys are obviously the "go to" place for coin advice/opinions. Thanks again!!!!
