Need Advice on Collecting Silver America the Beautiful Quarters

Hi everyone,

I once was an avid coin collector (as a kid) and did so for years, but haven't for about the last 30 years, so I'm a little naive with regard to "modern" collecting . Lately, I have been intrigued by the new America the Beautiful quarter program. In particular, I want to build a complete set of the silver proof versions.

After some investigation, I think I have settled on an album, the Dansco National Parks Quarter Album #7148 because it has one slot per coin regardless of mint mark. I don't have any experience with Dansco albums, but have heard that they are the best. Do you believe that this album will be safe for my silver, proof quarters? In other words, can I expect no discoloration, etc.?

Secondly, I believe that the most economical way to build this set is to buy the complete, US Mint packaged silver proof quarter sets and crack 'em open. It looks like the individual coins in the series go for about $8-9 each where coins in the sets run about $6.50 each.

Thanks for your input!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

The Dansco should do just fine, though you may indeed see some discoloration. Search this forum or google for "Dansco toning" to see discussion on the likelihood of this, and learn about Dansco's "SilverGuard" albums to address it.

If you find a set of 5 silver proof quarters for anything approaching $6.50, they're likely fakes. The silver value ALONE would put the $1.25 of 90% silver in the $25-$30 range, give or take.

The mint's current price on the 2012 Silver Proof Set is $41.95

EDIT : Ah, it's just been pointed out to me, you said $6.50 each, making a set in the $32-$33. My error, I simply didn't read thoroughly.

Yes indeed, you may find them at that price, though it'll likely take a bit of looking with current sets going at $42 from the mint.

 

A nice set to collect, TT. I'm working on a complete sets of PDSS unc and proof in Littleton albums. I'm buying mine from the mint and cracking them out.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies so far. After doing some looking on Feebay, I found many 2010-S, 5-quarter silver proof sets for between $32-$35 each (including shipping). I figure this is probably the way to go since that comes out to about $6.40 to $7.00 per quarter.Individual quarters for 2010-S are going for about $7.50 to $8.00 each (including shipping) plus I don't know how these coins were handled when they were put into 2x2's, etc.The only thing I would be concerned with here is actually cracking open the case, but I've read some threads here about how to do it. I've got some low-value proof sets around here that I could practice on. Who would've ever thought that sets like the '68 set would go for $4 plus shipping? It's nuts.I will look into the "silver guard" Dansco albums. Thanks for the tip!

 

the modern silver proof cases don't need to be "cracked" open they are not sealed since '98 or so they have a seam that comes apart. no glue or fusing of plastic.

 

I love Dansco albums, but be very careful with proofs. Slide marks can easily be put onto the coins surface by the plastic slides. I put mine in backwards (pushing them in from the back of the page) and make sure to push them all the way to the front.

 

That's an excellent tip! Make good sense. Does anyone know where I can see a complete catalog of Dansco albums? Do they have an official site? I couldn't find one via Google. Thanks everyone.

 

I have a lot of Dansco's, some Littletons, some Intercept and some Whitmans. Honestly the point of an album in my opinion is to display the coins, and that depends on the slide. The older Dansco albums had sturdier slides, but the new ones scratch easily (if the slide is scratched, it looks like the coin is, defeating the whole purpose of the album). In addition, I've gotten lots of 'dust' or 'hair' off the new Dansco's too. My favorite is Whitman - sturdy slides, no hair, and thumb notches so you can pull the slide out w/o touching part of the plastic (and scratching/smudging it).
I did a lot of research on these, and it seems all 4 modern albums are made of 'archival safe' materials, so you should be good there (versus older ones).
Beware of the scratching from the slides especially on high-grade coins - wait to put the coins in for a whole 'slide' all at once, so you only have to touch that slide, and therefore don't have potential scratching of the coins.
I like my albums a lot, but only use albums for modern and circulation sets. Ancient, key-date, high-value, super-high grade (for the issue) I don't put in albums because of some potential problems.
To 'give back' to the coin community, I posted a rather lengthy review of all the albums. If youre interested, I'll send you the link. Regardless of album choice, my suggestion (for what it's worth) is just carefully, and only once, use the slides.

 

Hey 'Twister? A word of warning when dealing with the e-bay auctions and silver proofs. It would be advisable to open the packaging to make sure the seller didn't swap out the silver for clad. Never hurts to be suspicious......



[edit] Oh dear.....you are opening them......never mind.