Nice find in circulation today. A 1990 proof nickel. This the second proof coin I've found in circulation in the past few months. I'm not going to get rich off of these but it sure is fun to find them. Somebody is a gettin' into daddy's coins...and I with I could thank him/her.
My bet is that someone cracked a set to get a coin for their collection and the nickel wasn't something they collected and didn't grade high enough to encapsulate, so it was just cash. Does make it nice for the pocket change collector.
I have always found that explination a litle weird... maybe you only collect 10c proofs, but why SPEND the rest of the proof coins when they will always bring in more than face value at a coin store, or ebay... etc. seems if some collectors do that they are not very smart...
Depending on date and denomination about 2% to 10% of proof singles are culls. If someone is cracking sets to sell rolls then the culls can not be included. While these still have some value, they can be difficult to sell and some people apparently will spend them in frustration. Also remember that these coins look like the current circulating coins. Some just fall into the wrong place and get spent. Many of the proofs I've seen in circulation had tarnish or other flaws which appeared to have occurred before circulation. I once found a proof '68 quarter which had been worn down to VG.
So how does one tell a given circulated coin is a proof? I would imagine the luster would be the first thing to go, so are there specific detail differences by denomination?
Are you sure it's a proof and not a business strike with the wrong die and thus the "S" MM, that would be a better find than an abused proof!
It isn't a very good picture but it is very shiny and in the case of nickels, it would not have an "S" MM if it weren't a proof in that year. The last nickel business strikes produce by the SF mint were in 1970. The shininess tipped me off but the MM confirmed it for me you might say.
Don't let the MM fool you. As with the "wide AM" business strike pennies and now the discovercy of 1999 "close AM" proofs, dies get confused. I recently brought a 1992D Kennedy with a polished out 2nd MM that the dealers at Stacks thought looked enough like an "S" that I am sending it to Ken Potter for evaluation. I really just cant understand why anyone would spend a proof!
There is no doubt in my mind that what I have is a debased proof. It still has the frosty color on the figure and the background is still very shiny. It wouldn't make sense for someone to fake a 1990 coin that is worth maybe 75 cents. I don't see how the SF mint could confuse a die with either Dever or Philly-Unless they have a die exchange program I'm out of the loop on. The simplest explanation is that it was taken out of a proof set and spent. That isn't so hard to believe.
Your nickel is most likely an abused proof, but keep in mind that since 1998 Proof Lincoln Cent reverses aka "wide AM" have been appearing on business strikes from Philadelphia, why were proof dies in Philadelphia? Also in 1999, Lincoln Cent Business strike reverses have shown up on some proof pennies, What were the business strike dies doing in SF which only strikes proofs? I'll let you know what the verdict is on the Kennedy half I mentioned earlier.
There are lots of proofs in circulation. These are encountered quite regularly. If you pay attention to the differences between the price of the sets and the total value of the coins in the set you'll see that those encountered are usually of dates that have recently changed. It is the '90 which has recently dropped in value while the coins in the set have not. Coincidence? Probably not. You'll also find a lot of '89, '88, and a few '91 right now. There have long been some other dates like '71 or '72 but these are worth a little more intact right now, I believe. Next year the price of the '93, and '94, '96 will likely change and you'll see them. With most of these you'll see more quarters than anything else.
I think you are onto something, I recently completed a collection of Kennedys and found it cheaper to buy many sets instead of individual coins for many years. In fact, I am about to list many of the remnant proofs (nickels, dimes, quarters and pennies) on ebay, The same can be said for many mint sets as well.
Very interesting post. I've often wondered how that anomoly happens, where certain sets are worth more broken up than intact. Looking at the CDN prices on proof rolls, a lot of the values seem to defy logic. Look at price of the 1991-S cents for example, which by itself is worth more than the whole entire 1991 proof set... WOW! cladking, you suggest that the price of the '93, '94, and '96 will likely change next year. Do you mean the proof sets of those years? If anything I would say those years are underpriced, since they all have low mintages. I can't imagine those sets going any lower than they already are.
Another thing comes to mind... supposing the 1990 sets have a high incentive to be broken up to sell the individual coins, then I would imagine that would ultimately reduce the supply of those sets, and eventually their price would rise back up again. Things have a way of balancing themselves out like that. On the other hand, how many people really go through the trouble to break up large quantities of proof sets? I remember I bought a bunch of 1982 proof sets when they were dirt cheap, and busted them all up with a hammer and screwdriver and put the coins in tubes for resale. But in retrospect, it seemed to be more trouble than it was worth.
It's mostly the big dealers who bust up sets like this because it's not extremely profitable. It is more profitable for these dealers because they can sell the singles at retail. Most collectors busting up mint and proof sets are doing it for their own collections or to retain the gems that can be found. There may well be a set premium reappear for many or most of these sets and the number of survivors will be a large determinant of the premium. The mint sets seem to be getting a little of a premium right now. At least they are going up and BU rolls are not.
I know who it is that breaks the sets up...coins shops. I've seen them sell the old cases. They must make more on the individual coins and thus it pays to break the sets up. I would bet you anything that dealers account for most of the broken up sets.
Most dealers do bust them up and a lot of proof and mint sets have been destroyed this way. The big dealers will sometimes bust 1,000's of a sin- gle date or several dates. I've actually seen bag sets of all proof set de- nominations. A bag set is 4,000 quarters of each date. (5,000 cents etc). One dealer bragged that he alone had busted more than ten percent of the mintage of a one year old proof set. One hears rumors of dealers who fill dumpsters with the debris from these sets. This has been going on for many years and the coins fron the sets are often very inexpensive and are either put into circulation or sold to less experienced collectors. Before 1995 about the only retail buyers of such coins were very inexperienced about coins. One has to suspect that they coins have not fared well over the years. Proof sets actually got as cheap as about 160% of face value in the mid-'90's and many of the mint sets actually wholesaled for less than face value. If collectors ever seek these coins in large numbers the coins will simply not be there in many cases. There are very few rolls of most moderns (other than cents) and the mint and proof set populations have been decimated by dealers and col- lectors.
The guy I used to work with found a proof nickel, in AU condition... A bit better condition than the best new Buffalos I've gotten He didn't know what it was at the time, just that it was a very shiny/cook looking nickel.
From my experience, proof Halves are the most commonly found circulating proofs. Back in 2003 I used to look through a box ($500 face) worth of halves every week and I found many proofs. I've been trying to put together a complete set of Kennedy Halves (including proof-only issues) pulled from circulation. Believe it or not I have found most of the proof dates, though I have yet to find a 90% silver "S" mint proof in circulation. Also I've found several each of 1987 P and D halves in circulation. Apparently many of the 1987 mint sets must have been cut up and cashed in for face value. As we know there were no 1987 halves released for circulation, but amazingly you do find them sometimes!
