Searching 1973 Mint sets for decnt Ikes

I've picked up a few 1973 Mint sets, homing to find some decent IKES. I got the first one today and thought I did well, until I took the pictures. The images are most worst than the coins in the hand. How would you grade these?

 

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Can't really grade them unless there cut out they at least look BU.

 

Hard to give a solid answer when there is so much chatter from the film it's in.

 

The plastic kills photographs big time. One of those you pop out knowing its from a mint set, or submit in the packaging

 

It’s hard to say if the marks are on the plastic or the coin. I would say that the last one, the 1973-D is pretty beat up. It’s probably no better than an MS-62.

 

As pictured, both 62.

 

The mint sets from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s contained a lot of ugly coins. I used to say that the mint dumped all of the mint set coins on a concrete floor and ran over them with track shoes.

 

I quite agree. This 1973 blue pack would be nice without the gouge on his jaw. Think it might also have a clash

 

Neither of them is worth grading.

 

Cool coins though

 

Want it graded? Buy it graded. Save yourself some time and money.....

 

yeah but they didn't look at all ugly until I photographed them. I will pop them out of the plastic, I think.

 

It was an ugly time in America, I think. The economy was difficult and things seemed to be just dysfunctional everywhere. Clad coins, the material itself, is very ugly, and easy to scratchup with nearly no eye appeal.

 

I'd call it MS-63+. It is in about the 60th percentile of what was made.

It has mint set hazing which will easily come off in alcohol or acetone. If left on it can be ruined in less than 20 years.

 

The problem with searching these sets for quality Ikes, is that people HAVE been searching these sets for quality Ikes for about 48 years. The more time that passes the fewer unsearched set there are and the less likely you are to find one. And even if you find an unsearched set, the chance of it having a quality Ike is still low.

 

Well, the P set has a 5 step Nickle, clean as a whistle, even under high magnification.

 

A lot of the 1973 mint sets that are seen are picked over. But it's not nearly as large a percentage that have been checked as some might believe. This is because most mint sets are destroyed enmass by wholesalers and their suppliers. While many sets are destroyed one at a time to get a nice coin or a variety and this practice leaves behind substandard sets, far more sets are destroyed thousands at a time having no effect on what's left behind.

It's been true for many years that sets that dealers keep in stock are picked over but the simple fact is there are very few people who have picked over these sets. Until the mid-'90's the incidence of '70-S sm dt cents remained level at 10%. The incidence of nice '73 Ikes was still about 3%. There was almost no cherry picking before 1980. Even today a great percentage of dealers "don't have time" to search the mint sets that come in. Now days most will at least check for varieties but they hardly search each individual set for Gems. There is some knowledge required to search the sets and few dealers have this specific knowledge. Even searched sets it's not too unusual to find important coins.

If you look at sets where heirs take them in like the corner coin shop you might be surprised what you can find. Back in the day I'd sit in a shop for hours and go through sets. The dealers liked it because I'd fix their sets and make sure each was complete and in good packaging. I'd buy a few nice sets at premium prices leaving the packaging. It is nearly as rare now seeing someone look through sets as it was then. Of course one of the reasons is that in the old days the sets were expensive. A 1973 mint set was over $100 in today's money and one couldn't afford to just buy them. Now days many sets can be had for face value. Even the '73 set which normally isn't tarnished is less than $10 and the two nice Ikes can be wholesaled for $8.

Be forewarned though before you sink any money in trying to make a profit that large percentages of mint set coins can't be wholesaled because they are ugly. Also large percentage of some dates are tarnished. The coins in the 1975 set wholesale at nearly $12 and the sets can be found for $4 each. Do the math before you try to find 40,000 sets to buy. And herein is another problem. In the old days it was easy to find large quantities of sets but most of them have been destroyed now. You can't find 40,000 sets. You'll have a little work finding 40 sets.

 

Beautiful strike! The coin is a keeper but the marking precludes much of a premium at this time. This one too needs to be soaked.

 

"Mint sets" are a tiny little backwoods of the modern coin markets even though virtually every single variety and Gem of circulating moderns originate in them!!! This extraordinary and unpredictable event has occurred due to a multitude of factors including the simple fact that most of the older sets are tarnished. Wholesalers want nice coins so they buy rolls assembled from sets instead of sets. When you advertise to buy '69 mint sets about 90% of what comes in is tarnished and this includes "all" of the half dollars. So the half dollars go for over $5 and the sets containing several tough to find coins wholesale as low as $4. Crazy market!

Of course there are almost no BU rolls of most moderns including most clads and even some cents and nickels. This leaves only the mint sets that are disappearing and selling for ridiculously low prices.

A lot of the tarnished coins can still be saved. Some dates are ruined almost in their entirety but other dates more than 80% can be saved with a soak. Nobody cares and if these coins aren't conserved within the first ten or twelve years of going bad they probably can't be saved. People would be amazed at the percentages of some coins that have been ruined. This means that varieties and Gems are going too. Even though most of these have been lost or destroyed or sold to the general public the few survivors are now corroding away.

I believe it is important to save these coins for future generations.