I was looking at my raw Unc Jefferson Set in preparation for scanning all the coins (I don't use a camera on stuff like that). My last coin in the folder is a 1985-S proof. I noticed I am missing one of the 1979-S proof varieties (I'll figure that out later). I am also missing the 1982 P&D, the 1983 P&D and the 1985 P&D. I understand why I'm missing the 1985 coins. That's the year I stopped buying from the Mint. But the missing 1982 and 1983 coins had me puzzled until I looked in the Red Book and found that the Mint didn't issue Mint Sets those two years. And Mint Sets were the source of my business strikes. Also in trying to pick up some BU examples I discovered that they are hard to find. So the light goes on in the head and I decide it may be worth investigating the possibility of socking some BU rolls away ... for ALL the 1982 and 1983 business strikes. Now here's the odd part. Only the nickels and quarters are comparatively more expensive that the years around them. Not the halves. Not the dimes. And not the cents (although the 1982 cents have other issues). Can anyone explain this?
Also nickels and quarters are more heavily collected than dime so there is more demand. I don't know about the quarters but the nickel dies were used way beyond the point where thy should have been retired in those years so many coins show severe die war which makes them rather ugly.
To a large degree it's because the nickels and quarters for those 2 years are widely known for being of very poor quality so people have been buying them up for years in an effort to find high grade examples.
