Coin proof and mint sets?

Silly boys, no Mint Set in 1793. It was a Souvenir Set that year. You had to visit the Mint.

 

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Usually those low mintages mean that they all went into the mint set so will be common. Moderns are a topsy turvy arena where high mintages are often rare and low mintages are common. Mint sets complicate everything a lot because many are destroyed by collectors or by bad packaging and time. I do like the One Forint in this set though.

The numbers of base metal moderns that have been destroyed to build refrigerators or simply lost is staggering. It's probably over 95% of coins made before 1999. Even here in the US I noticed just the other day that nickels from the 1970's are getting decidedly tough to find in pocket change. They aren't only tough to find in nice F and better, they're getting tough to find even in VG and cull.

The same thing is being found all over the world; many moderns weren't really saved and there aren't enough even for the light demand.

 

I buy sets quite often. Very inexpensive. Fascinating to search and fun.

 

After WWII one country after another switched to base metal coinage. Some switched in 1946 and some not until 1968 but they all changed. The exact same thing happened in every case; collectors stopped collecting new coins from that country.

This is the "modern era" as it applies to coins. Each country began in a different year so moderns are marked by higher mintages, lower quality, and very few coins set aside for the future. Collecting these coins today is much different than collecting older coins because there is still little competition and no price guides. Coins that list for $2 in Unc routinely sell for 30 and high grade slabbed examples for hundreds. Meanwhile many $2 moderns are so common you can't give them away. Nobody really knows what anything is worth and I suspect a lot of the high prices are being caused by speculation rather than rarity. But I'm quite confident there are hundreds of coins that still trade for $2 that are quite scarce.

More and more people are collecting moderns and they'll be able to straighten this out in time but until then ignore the price guides and ignore Krause. You can also ignore the Greysheet, Redbook, and other price guides for US moderns.

Everyone knows what a '16-D merc is worth in any grade but what is a nice 1972 Japanese 100Y worth in chBU? You can find the '16-D. Trying laying your hands on the '72.

 

I collect silver proof sets, except this year when the mint jacked the price way up on. I probably have a break even or a small loss overall since 1999. LOL

Just feel like I should say it one more time though, in my own words, coin collecting is a hobby, not an investment strategy.

You might gain on something when you are old and grey, you might not, but the majority certainly won't be gains, just like stamps or baseball cards, or any other hobby.
You do it for enjoyment, if there's a win in there, awesome, but it's not about that.

If it's about making gains, stack precious metals as close to melt cost as you can get, buy low, sell high and rebuy low, or buy and flip coins and vest pocket coin dealer and take your cuts headhunting coins for collectors,,, make a business out of that. even then, not every endeavor is a gain, there's always losses involved in anything.

I wish you luck in whatever you do, but investing in coins.... not really a good investment, even the time of year you sell or where you sell can make a winner a loser, or a loser a winner. you'd be better off with a fixed annuity I think.

 

Were they crowded all year or did the crowds thin out?

 

Nether! If you want investments, go to silver stacking, not collecting. On any set you buy, you will be paying more than the face value or precious metal content, so a BAD investment from the get go, IMHO.

 

Just fun to have I guess. Not a money maker

 

That was cute. Think I would of went but no buses

 

My mama left us with older mint sets for the family. Still in regular mint boxes etc.. I’m the baby. How the hell did she know their would be five of us. She started in the 40’s. Shout out to dad too!!!!

 

complain, complain, complain... hey, wait a minute, maybe the British in 1812 were just taking a Washington tour and were so irritated the mint was closed and they couldn't get a souvenir set, they burned the White House!!!

 

Except for those Brits in 1812...