Awesome work by the mint. Love the 'clear view' three lens set. All coins are perfectly aligned (i.e. 12 o'clock of the coin is mounted exactly at 12 o'clock). Why can't the TPGs figure this out? Coins themselves are beautiful. With some of the *****ing you hear about the Mint, they did an excellent job on these sets.
My set was excellent. I compared the silver ATBs from this set, to the ones in the 5 coin silver set and both were flawless. I hesitate to bust open the 5 coin silver ATB silver set to put in my Dansco it looks so good. LOL
the unc and proof sets are usually good...the small mintage coins like the spouses are about 40% defective
I purchased another silver proof set again this year. I was updating the value of my proof sets and noticed the following interesting trend on mintage and market value (using ebay) of silver proof sets. The 2012 set is rising in value over the past couple of months. It is now selling for over $150 in many instances on ebay. The low mintage is probably the reason. I think that the mint caught everyone off guard when the stopped selling them at the beginning of the year at such a low mintage. 1999 804,565 $105 2000 965,421 $38 2001 849,600 $45 2002 892,229 $43 2003 1,146,050 $36 2004 1,187,700 $40 2005 993,528 $43 2006 1,048,872 $39 2007 875,050 $40 2008 774,874 $47 2009 694,406 $56 2010 585,414 $70 2011 574,175 $75 2012 395,443 $140
When I hear people talking badly about the US Mint, it's mainly because of the prices being so high or the mint re·neg·ing on a coin or coin set they said was only gonna be sold a certain way. I've never gotten a bad coin from the mint but they have most definitely sold items in a way that wasn't right and it's happened more once.
With the 2013 sets still priced at $67.95/set and silver prices dropping so fast, does anyone think the final mintage of the 2013 sets will exceed that of the 2012 sets? ...in other words, could this, once again, become FREE MONEY!!! :hail:
I think that it will exceed 2012. It always seems to happen after a low mintage year. Plus, the economy is beginning to heat up. Silver will be $30/oz by the end of the year and everyone is now feeling it. I bet the silver pucks will sell out quickly at $180. It is a little surprising that the silver proof sets are still high priced, which may bode well for us collectors.
I could only wish that I got a "bad" coin from the US Mint in either a proof or uncirculated set. Maybe a weakly struck Proof or perhaps a broadstruck Uncirculated coin? A clipper would be baaad and a double struck proof even badder! But the worst kind would be where the laser engraver didn't quite match up with the devices! Yeah...........it would just suck to get ANY of the above!
There is nothing wrong with the mint makeing coins as long as the coins sell for only the content cost of the metal used. Every coin we collect had to earn their cost by demand from the collectors that wanted them and that in its self drove up the price of the coin. The mint is playing the worth of the coins by adding the high cost right off the bat that looks to me like they want to set the prices of the coins worth and make a very healthy profit and they set the worth of the coins and not we as collectors. I liked it best when the collectors were in charge of the worth of a coin and not the goverment makeing a quick profit. Seems they have gotton greedy and made the little guy even smaller. While there are many coins many collectors will never get to buy because of the cost now even coins less than a year old get pushed out of their reach. One way to bring the mint in check would be for collectors to stop buying these overly priced coins .
The price will be lowered to $60.95. http://mintnewsblog.com/2013/05/lower-prices-for-silver-proof-sets/
Wow. Still not low enough for me since, unless there is a tremendous shortage or low final mintage, selling them at this cost will be impossible. I kind of agree with woodyhenderson in that the US Mint appears to be making a very handsome profit off these coins over and above the seignorage. At the same time, they're dictating the price of the coins that, unless your a bulk US Mint buyer, can really set you back. Back when times were a bit looser, I had standing subscriptions for 10 of each offering. Thats been cut back to 3 for the Silver sets and totally cancelled for the other annual coins sets. I'll buy when I get a chance and if the chance doesn't come up, I won't be terribly upset. Of course, this brings up the subject that since the overages or profits if you will, go directly into the General Fund for the US Government, should the excess amounts paid for proofs and uncirculated sets be tax deductible? I mean you are after all indirectly paying Federal Taxes?
Maybe not. Prices tend to be sticky for a few years. And since the big dealers put their orders in right away they paid more than the new price even with the bulk discount. They are not going to unload them cheap. Through three weeks of sales these have sold 214,000 sets whereas last year at this point they had sold 218,000 sets. You would think the surprise sell out last year would have encouraged collectors to get their orders in early, but that has not happened. So this year's mintage may be lower again than last year's. It is far from a sure thing, but I think I will buy a few just in case. Worst case they will become stocking stuffers for Christmas.
