Two that immediately come to mind: -- The Mint makes more money from proofs than from business strikes -- The Fed Reserve Banks are still distributing older business strikes even after the turn of the year
As a general rule quite a few Proofs are released first, I think it's because of the way the law is written. When it comes to business strikes they are not to be minted with a date on them other than the date of the year in which they are minted. The two notable exceptions to that were when special laws were passed that allowed the minting of coins dated 1964 to be minted in 1965 and 1966, and the Bicentennial coins in 1975 and 1976. Proofs however are exempt from that law because they are not meant for circulation. And many Proofs are minted in the latter part of the year prior to the date on the coins so that they can be released starting in January of the year the coins are dated.
For some reason i thaught each was releases together tjen once each was out then theyed make the proof sets. Kinda makes the cerimones meaningless if you can get them in a set before the actual release.
I always assumed it was tradition as proofs were basically test specimens made before full production went into effect to test dies, design and so on.
Simple, because they sell a lot of proof sets but they don't make them all up ahead of time. If they had to wait until all the ATB quarters had had their release dates pass they could start selling them until around Dec and then they might run into problems getting things done in time for Christmas, or possibly having the year end before they have everything struck. (After the end of the year they couldn't strike any more.) You run into the same problem with the mint sets, the silver proof sets, basically they would have to make up ALL of their annual sets in Dec at the same time they are trying to get everything ramped up for the coming year. (Have to have all those monster boxes of the next years ASE's ready to go off to the distributors and TPG's on Jan 1st.)
every thing you guys said makes a lot of sense. "I always assumed it was tradition as proofs were basically test specimens made before full production went into effect to test dies, design and so on." this may be true of the early single proof coins proof as in proof of concept etc
He could of been more wrong had he said proofs are released to please three breasted space babes from another galaxy.
