Visited the local coin store today, mainly there to try to get some progress on Eisenhower dollars. They didn't really have many (they seemed to only have the silver ones, and some clad proofs which I wouldn't put in the album), but I did get a 1973-S silver business strike; last silver one I needed for the album. Didn't want to leave with just that, so I looked around, and saw a pretty decent (VF maybe?) 1909-S Lincoln, so now down to only needing 3 more to finish the Lincoln cent set! (You can probably guess which 3 I still need lol.) Also found a really nice 1967 Canadian cent to improve what I had in that set. This wasn't something I was looking for, but for 50 cents can't pass that up. Since I had my Lincoln cent album open anyway, I used the shiny 1951-S I found in circulation recently to upgrade what was in the album. I may have to settle for eBay to finish the rest of the clad Ikes I need, or find somewhat of a "lower end" coin store that will actually stock them. (One I go to most often seems somewhat upscale.) Other than a lucky find where I work, almost a year ago, I haven't seen them in circulation since the 1980's.
Once in a long while I'd see them in a teller's drawer or at a grocery. But self-checkouts and CoinStars want nothing to do with them, which makes them even more firmly "not real money" in most minds.
Some of the LCSs will have a lot of mint sets, sometimes less than $10 each. Not the same as finding in the wild, but you get a full set of UNC coins for just a few times face.
I already had to resort to buying and breaking open a 1973 uncirculated set to get the clad uncirculated Ikes from that year, since they were never released into circulation. I could do that for other years if I really have to but it feels like spending more than I have to, and also getting a lot of coins I don't need to get the ones I do. I'd rather avoid that if possible.
I might try asking a few banks if I have the spare time to do so sometime. They usually don't have any, but there's always a chance.
P.S. Three Lincoln cents I still need are: 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, and 1922 plain. Those will take a while...
Better chance of playing a lottery scratch ticket. I did get an 1857 flying eagle cent in change once. Believe it or not.
They need not be perfect, but they're not that old and definitely not rare, so uncirculated or AU at least I would say. If I was really picky I'd have to pick them out of uncirculated sets (that's how I got the 1973's). Generally speaking when trying to finish a set I start out just worrying about getting the holes filled, and possibly upgrade them later as I find and/or can afford better. With such a short set though, and uncirculated examples not that pricey, may as well get as good as I can find. But I'm not too worried about them being the absolutely best possible.
Lucky find to be sure. Best I found in circulation was an 1892 Indian head, maybe like VF on a good day lol. I consider myself lucky to find shiny wheat cents. Yeah, I'm not expecting to just "find" those. Will definitely have to buy them some day or hope for a very generous gift.
Save your money! It took me time but I just completed my set of Lincoln’s, with all three of these coins.
The reason I asked is because I have about 150 of them, and just purchased (by accident) 20 proof Ikes (found in circulation). They haven't arrived yet but they are on their way.
Three empty unlabeled spots on the second page of the Eisenhower dollar album... This is more long term, but I have thoughts about what I want to put there, going with the Eisenhower theme: 1990 Eisenhower centennial 1991-1995 World War II commemorative (quote by Eisenhower on the reverse) 2013 5 Star Generals, Eisenhower again (and Marshall)
I was really lucky back in the time I was playing with building an Ike set. My local dealer always had many rolls of Ikes. He let me pick thru the rolls for nice examples at $1.25 per coin. That was fun. Later on I thought I could build a set of MS-65 from mint sets. That was a failure but it taught me to grade the silly things. Most all the clads I sent in for grading, came back as 64s. I did get a few 65s. It was a good lesson for me.
This made me curious as to what the highest grade on Eisenhower dollars even were. PCGS has never graded a circulation issue Ike higher than MS-68 (only 1977 ever made that) and rarely do they get better than MS-67. High grades are especially rare for 1971 & 1972 issues as they weren't in uncirculated sets. (Some silver ones did get MS-69 but no clad business strikes have been graded that high as of yet.) Anything higher than MS-65 is quite valuable; it's rare for them to be minted that well. Heck even from mint sets better than 64 is quite lucky. I'm kind of settling for just "OK" atm and maybe down the road I'll upgrade them if I'm in the mood and can afford it lol. Just got a 1974 & 1974-D in the mail from an eBay purchase; both pulled from mint sets, and look "pretty good." The 1974 has a little bit of toning on it despite being in a sealed package for 51 years; it can still happen, but it's not unattractive toning.
Will take pictures of the whole set when I'm finished with it. Ones I need to finish are due to arrive in the mail soon (other than the "extra credit" commems I intend to buy later).
