I was looking at some figures for mintages of proof sets from the middle of the twentieth century on. From 1950 there was almost an exponential increase in the mintages up until a peak of about three million in 1961. From then on it has been pretty stable up till now, though falling off slowly until it is has reached just over a million and a half or so these days. I would have thought the demand would be higher now than ever if anything. But what caused such a rush in the sixties?
In the sixties the darn British invasion slamm'd the doors on Doo Wop and Rockabilly......By around 64, despite a doo wop revival in the early 60's.... The Soda shops with the Jukebox were fading away, as war with Vietnam was brewing, and the drug culture scene was taking foot..... but in the 2000's the beat still lives because certian people refuse to let this precious music die..... I perform still with some of those old Vocal groups such as the Solitaires: And when the band jumps with the knocked out bass the Hepcats get to jumpin' to the Boppin beat! And the crazy cars, man ol man, the Kitty still lives it! Yes the 60's was a great time of change in the Country, but oh, wait a minute, your talking coins.... When they took the Franklin out and replaced it with that Hairyhead coin, it was over!!! Sorry Kennedy collectors, but Lucy still loves you!
There was a proof set (and uncir roll) craze in the early 60s in the US, similar to the commemorative craze in the 30s (which crashed in 36). One persons' take: 'What our government does with coinage has a tremendous impact on people’s desire and ability to collect coins. Examples include the government’s resumption of yearly proof set manufacturing in 1950, after an eight-year hiatus. The yearly minting of proof sets beginning in 1950, and the improved packaging of those sets beginning in 1955, helped fuel the post-war coin boom and carried through to the 1960-64-bull market. Government coinage policy can also have a negative impact, as was seen when the government stopped making proof sets from 1965-67, stopped putting mint marks on coins from 1965-67, and, most importantly, took the silver out of coins in 1965. This action put a real damper on coin collecting and stopped the 1960-64-bull market."
In the mid-60s coin collectors got blamed for a coin shortage in this country. (I wish) It affected production of mint and proof sets and the government went so far as to remove the mint marks in their efforts to keep us from needing more than one of each coin! Sounds crazy but that was there train of thought at the time and then someone finally woke up and smelled the roses, had a brain storm, and realized coin collectors WERE NOT causing coin shortages in this country! Really a crazy time and yes, I DO MISS the HIPPIES and all that PEACE and LOVE!!! Peace!
In the sixties the darn British invasion slamm'd the doors on Doo Wop and Rockabilly......By around 64, despite a doo wop revival in the early 60's.... The Soda shops with the Jukebox were fading away, as war with Vietnam was brewing, and the drug culture scene was taking foot..... Yeah I dig ya Kitty. Big Daddy was our hero and the sixties got him too. keep the DooWop boppin'.
Boy, I wish we could have part of the sixties back! At least coin prices so I could stock up for the turn of the century!
Me too Terry, and maybe I would get a crack at the 1964-D Peace Dollar. I still find it hard to believe all of them were destroyed.
As far as early 60s proof sets are concerned, I had heard that for the late 50s or so the proof set was a consistent and quick money maker. So, people started buying huge quantities of the current set, and even an insurance company got into the act and bought hundreds of thousands as an investments. Then the market fell and that scam was no repeated (until maybe now???). Anyway, even with the silver melts of the 70s, a lot of sets survive from this era.
The crash of the proof set and BU roll market should not be underestimated. There were large numbers of people who believed that an ever increasing demand for coins would push the prices of late date coins through the roof. They had witnessed earlier roll from the early and mid '50's languish for a brief period and then increase at twenty or fifty percent annual rates. Earlier rolls had also done well. At the time the average baby boomer was approaching a typical age to begin collecting and many millions were already scouring pocket change. This market was highly speculative and would have crashed before long even without outside influence, but the announcement that coinage was changing to cu/ ni clad seemed to be the trigger at the time. While the public hardly noticed a change, collectors loathed the new coins. It ended the highly prized silver coins as well as both mint and proof sets. The elimination of mint marks even discouraged cent and nickel collectors and many stopped their sets at this time. There was also a move in Congress to make coin collecting illegal! This was the Bible bill and would have affected any coins which were considered "too common" to collect. Also of great impact was the announcement that dates were to be frozen. Initially this was to apply to all coins but then they said the 1965 date would be coined and it would be permanently frozen until there was no evidence that collectors were still hoarding new coin. The '65 date was continued well into 1966 and the mint said they might consider adding back mint marks. All of this worked to sour collectors on new coins, but the tremendous losses incurred in the roll market crash was a lesson that many of we old-timers have never forgotten. Saving new coin plummeted in 1965 but there were still huge numbers of new coin set aside. As hoarders discovered that there was absolutely no market for these coins the setting aside of new coin continued to plummet every year until 1970. There are some rolls of this era which are simply unavailable because they were never set aside. On the rare occasion a roll of something like 1969 quarters is seen it will be a roll assembled from mint sets. Generally this is of no great import since mint sets are still available except that varieties usually do not appear in mint sets. This makes many of the arieties of this era excrutiatingly rare in uncirculated condition. Indeed varieties had a double whammy; no one cared enough to look at the coins to identify them and then there were no rolls available after the year of issue to locate them. It also is a problem because some specific mint set coins are almost always in a very unattractive condition. (like '71 quarters). In the future it is likely to be a far greater problem due to the huge attrition of mint and proof sets over the years. Here we are finally getting to the point that people have some interest in these coins and the sets are almost all gone from years of neglect.
Old Dan it is rumored that ALL of the 64 Peace Dollar didn't make it back in! But who in their right mind would come forward now and say "I got one"? They (the mint) had the same mess when copper prices went up and they carted new Lincoln cents off to congress and distributed them for opinions on the new metal content. Took them forever to get MOST of them back out of congressmens desks, brief cases and pockets. One of them was found by a janitor who turned the darn thing in? I would be pretty hard pressed to think the Mint can actually know exact facts and figures on anything any more! To big and too governmental, if you know what I mean?
