It took me nearly six months and many failed ebay bids but I was finally able to collect all four of the 1982/83 p/d souvenir mint sets. One came from my LCS but the other three I had to rely on ebay for. There is quite the competition for the small number of sets that are out there. On my 82D set, the envelope is a little worse for wear but the cellophane and coins are all in wonderful shape. The other three sets are sharp. If I recall, these were produced from 71 to the mid-90's but of course the 82/83 are the only four that are normally collected and in high demand. I can't imaging putting together a complete run. Some of those dates are probably impossible to find. Anyway, I can now mark that accomplishment off my checklist and move on to the next goal.
These can generally be found for between $40 and $60. Just depends on how many people are bidding for the same one. It seems the 83's tend to go for a little more than the 82's.
I have the entire Denver run from '72 - '98. I have the Philadelphia run from '73-'93. I've only seen '94-'98 come up on Ebay one time, but the guy wanted $1500.00 for the five of them. I keep hoping more will come up or someone can point me in the right direction. I keep looking at my LCS and surrounding coin shows, but no luck.
souvenirsets.com has a good write-up on them. Quoting from it... The rarest set appears to be the 1972 Souvenir Set with perhaps only a few hundred offered. Other low production years include the dates from 1973 to 1975, 1986, and the dates from 1993 to 1998, where production numbered in the low thousands. @Histman, are you attempting to put together the full run? It also mentions them as being "standard 5-coin sets" and talks about the SBA's being offered as a separate set for each of the three years. I saw these recently at a coin show and should have picked them up. It's interesting that the Ike's were omitted for the 72-78 editions and that the 1975 included the 74 quarter/half (as opposed to the 76 quarter/half). That site mentions, in their year breakdown, that the first year only included Denver. I did not know that.
Yes, in '72, only the Denver was produced. I have that. I am attempting to complete the entire run. I have all of the SBA sets, and the Bicentennial Sets during the run. Just have to keep my eyes open so I can get those last five from the '90s.
I've heard tell that a lot of the '90's sets have PL's in them but haven't actually seen one. Back in the day I used to pass up '82 and '83 sets if they were more than $4. Sometimes I'd pull out ones with nice quarters for more. It often seemed no one would ever care about anything made after 1964.
As is typical for these two dates (at least it seems that way to me), the quarter and half are the typical weak strikes. But it's nice finding 82/83 coins with full luster. The only minor problem is that the cent in the 82P set has already developed a few carbon spots.
The reason the 1975 sets contain the 1974 coins was probably because the sets were available for purchase at the mint early in the year, but the Bicentennial coins were not issued until late in the year with the half-dollar starting first in July and the quarter not until a couple months later. Rather than wait until the Bicentennial's could be released, the souvenir sets contained the 1974 coins which were still in production.
I have all 4 myself as they fit perfectly in my run of US Mint Sets from 1959-date. Tough sets, but worth having!
