Collecting proff sets

Any one of you out there collect proof sets? I have recently bought a few proof sets to add to my new/small collection. I have found these to be a nice looking asset to my collection. I know they don't cost much and aren't usually worth much but they are relatively cheap to get and they come in a nice case and have the description card with them. I was wondering if there was anyone out there that also collected these and could give me any tips/advice or just wanted to talk about this part of their collection with me. I have bought my birth year and my girlfriends birth year. I want to slowly get more and more years!

 

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Lots of folks collect these. I would look for nice sets. Don't buy any with ugly coins in them.

 

I personally like them. Although they aren't much of an investment, this is where the "like" factor comes in for me and my collection, as well as Wheaties! And I try to get the "uncirculated sets" haha

 

Actually in some cases you are wrong some of the proof in proof sets are high grade proofs if slabbed some of those coins would be worth a huge premium !!

 

Hmmm interesting...What kind of proofs are we talking here?

 

Could be any proof just has to be a high grade like a PF70 and some in PF69 are valuable also!! Could be any were from a penny to a dollar. Also the 70's set with the ikes in them are good because the ikes in pf69 usually sell in the mid 30 dollar range !

 

Well what about my 1988 uncirculated proof set..should be a good grade but the year isn't a key year on any of them I don't think haha

 

Dosent need to be a key year if the dime in thier is a pf70 then it would be worth over 30 dollars to somebody on ebay !

 

I am a new collector and don't know all of the terms, sorry! What does pf70 mean? lol my apologies

 

Coins are graded on a Sheldon 70 scale. PF = proof, MS= mint state. A grade of 70 means the coin is perfect. It's the highest grade. From the '90's on, can't speak for the 80's much, the mint was producing proof coins in such high quality that most of the coins grade 68, 69 or 70.

What Sean was implying is a coin graded perfect, either MS or PF, would garner a premium. The tough thing for even experienced graders is to tell the difference between a 69 and 70.

I like to collect the Silver Proof Sets, because they also have some precious metal content.

I sent you a PM as well.

 

Exactly also usually if you want to get the best coins get a large amount of sets compare the coins for example buy mabye 10 1979 proof sets and use them to pick out the nicest coin then have it broken out and pcgs or ngc will grade it hopefully a pf 70 because thier is a huge price drop from 70 to 69 sometimes more then 60 percent !!

 

Oh wow...that is a major drop from 70 to 69...Not a bad idea though about buying multiple and picking out the best. One questions though...breaking them out of the original package won't hurt their value at all? And would I need to take them to a local dealer to get them put back in the package nicely? I have never broken down a proof set before.

 

Well no not if done correctly, but you must put them in holder once you take them out of the case this will protect them, then the good coins you could submit to pcgs and ngc do you know about thoose grading companies ?? and no you should not get the dealer involved once the coins are out they are out !

 

Sean is talking about TPG's (Third Party Graders). They have been around since 1987. There are two who currently rule the roost: NGC and PCGS. They will grade your coins and put them in a sealed plastic slab with a grade. You will not need to put them back in the OGP (Original Government Packaging)

Here's is an example from each company:

 

Each company offers a guarantee when they slab your coins. Each site has it's own pricing section as well, so you can determine a starting price point for your coins. The pricing between each site varies widely. That Red Book I told you about will also have prices in it. Please use all three as ONLY a guide. Heritage Auctions has a "past auction archives" section that is generally a good place to see what your coin in your grade is selling for. There are other places to get pricing as well, but I don't want to make this too long a response. There are Pro's and Con's to every place that has pricing listed. But I've been told by a well respected person in the industry to use Heritage's prices as they are current and a reflection of true market prices.

 

This is all very helpful! I just wanted to thank all of you for your responses!

So in order to get them graded I would send them to one of the grading services and they will send them back slabbed depending on how much I pay? I really like the look with all of the coins in the same container. Do they offer that type of slabbing? Sorry I know that is probably a newbie question...

 

All coins you send in will be grade by a professional, put into on of the holders the top photo is pcgs and the bottom is ngc. Then they will add it into the database of all slabbed coins on thier website and ship it back to you. This is not a cheap process though at the least each 14 dollars per coin plus other fees of insurance and so on, also thier is a certain amount you have to send in to get that price. It may seem like fun and it is cool and it is a costly process only done usually on better coins sometimes this is not the case but you want to get the most bang for your buck so only the best coins should go to these companies here are the websites of both services this well explain it a little better.

http://www.ngccoin.com
http://www.pcgs.com

 

If collecting Proof Sets sounds like a worthwhile pursuit to you, then I would highly recommend collecting Proof sets of the 1950-1970 Era.

There's an excellent book written by Rick Tomaska about the Proof Sets of this era that breaks it down very nicely. Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/Cameo-Brilliant-Proof-Coinage-1950/dp/096285770X

There are coins well worth looking for in post 1970 Proof Sets as well, but I don't think I recommend starting out with trying to slab high grade proofs. I'd get my feet wet with looking for premium sets or cherry picking existing dealer inventories until I knew more about the coins themselves.

 

You are new. Buy attractive sets in original government packaging and enjoy looking at them and owning them. Do not worry at this point about grading these coins and definitely do not fall for the sucker's trap of randomly buying coins in high grade holders. Read, learn, listen and have fun.

 

Look at silver proof coins too