In addition to building my Mercury set, I decided to undertake a birth year set as well -- in my case, 1987. I've already got just under a third of the set done, since, to make it as complete as possible, I will be collecting by mint mark as well as the silver and gold commemorative coins from that year. I've taken care of the San Francisco coins, all of them in beautiful deep cameo, but when starting on the business strikes, I ran across some questions. I want the best coins possible for this set (and I hope to make a good registry set out of it), but I'm not entirely sure about strike qualifiers. I'm looking for FT on the dimes, and FS on the Jeffersons, but beyond that, I'm a bit lost. I know RD is desirable for cents, but are there any signifiers of a well struck coin other than judging by eye? The same goes for the quarters and halves; I can tell a well struck coin when I see one, but are there particular details on these three types that mark a truly remarkable piece, a la FT and FS? Thanks for your time and help!
Sounds like you could be losing a little sleep over putting this set together old fellow. Birth year sets are supposed to be fun. If it were me, I'd only be concerned with picking up nice examples of the birth year. I'd focus on eye appeal only and leave it at that. Just a humble "two cents" opinion....
On the NGC Registry you can go into your set and select the date and coin type you are concerned with. For example you can open your 1987 Mint Set and then select the 25 cent coin from Philidelphia. It will then give you a list of the point values for each possible coin determination - grades, stars, cameo, ultracameo, etc. I can not find anything similar for PCGS Registry sets but there probably is. I guess you could always check the population reports for that particular year and coin.
No, cents, halves, quarters don't have the qualifiers that the other series do. Some folks are happy with the basic U. S. mint set and proof set from their birth year. Foreign coins could widen the set by several orders of magnitude. If a person has ancestors from a specific country or group of countries, that might be an idea. Another popular idea is the century set, a set from 100 years before (1887).
I'm close to finishing my birthyear set. All Mints plus the proofs. All the coins are slabbed. [NOTE: When I use the term “slab” or its derivatives, I mean ONLY PCGS and NGC unless otherwise stated.] Cents - Business: MS-66 Red Cent - Proof: missing Nickels - Business: MS-65 5FS Nickel - Proof: PF-66 Dimes - Business: MS-65 FB Dime- Proof: PF-65 Quarters - Business: MS-65 Quarter - Proof: PF-66 Halves - Business: P&D MS-65, S MS-64 Halves - Proof: "no AW" PF-65; "AW" PF-66 (pending attribution )
Don't forget about the Constitution bicentennial commemoratives of 1987 if you are looking at adding to the circulated coins you are currently working on.
start looking through your change, for crying out loud! it'll take a week at most for everything except the half, and you can get it at a coin shop.
Thank you all for the helpful information! I'll be sure to put it to good use; the tip about the NGC registry should be especially useful. Congrats! I hope yours is as satisfying as mine is turning out to be This is true, except for the fact that I would like good quality, high end coins. I'm not going to find those in circulation. Is there something wrong with trying to make a set as nice as possible? Oh, it's not causing me to lose any more sleep than normal I was just idly wondering about this, that's all. I don't necessarily need top pop, but I do want to put together a pretty looking set, and so far, it's been coming together very nicely.
