“Unopened” US proof sets

I am the former

 

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A few more pictures

 

Some sweet coins here!

 

Here's another that I found in my stash.
Why does this have 3 pennies in it but only 2 of everything else ?
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This is a U.C. business strike set, and the last year San Francisco, made an S cent.

 

Wow take some more pictures of the 1958 wheat penny I think it's a nice woody from what I can't tell.

Thanks,
Jacob

 

Very nice coins. I like to think of these mint gems as the "jewels of coinage"!

 

Whats "the former" lol?

 

I think it's a rather esoteric, quite antiquated, and very rarely used term in numismatics referring to "one who assembles (i.e., forms) collections".

 

What P and G said. This is a mint set not a proof set. These coins were taken from circulation and put into sets. The nickel, dime, quarter, half and Ike S coins are only proofs. SF still makes S cents, but they are proof coins.
And what I meant by my earlier post was, if most people who buy proof sets are collectors, they are going to want to see the coins. They are not going to leave them unopened for 50 years. And so the unopened proof sets that are advertised on EBay are 99.9% already searched through for varieties/ high grade coins, and then sealed and claimed to be unopened, because of the original mint packaging.

 

In reply to your comment; the former would be the collector, the latter would be the dealer. I am a collector. I do not sell anything

 

Makes sense to me.

 

It's really nice to run into someone here every now and then who like myself only collects to collect and not to sell!

 

While I would agree that generally a collector would want to see what they've acquired, you can still be a collector whose interest is in acquiring coins, or anything else for that matter, that have never been seen (except those who packaged them at the Mint) by anyone else. Certainly, I would love to see what the coins look like in those Mint and Proof sets that I know have never been opened (still contained in the original and unsealed "Mailer" used by the Mint to send the sets enclosed therein to the original purchaser). But you reach an age where the desire to share, or spark the sense of discovery that you have felt, with another, out weighs your desire to see what you have now. However I must admit, I do have 3 1964's in unsealed US Mint mailers, one of which and chosen at random, I will open at some point before I leave this veil of tears. I think it was Lemme Caution, who said something to the effect that there are as many types of "collectors" as there are collectors; I couldn't agree more, even if I do appear to be of the really odd type Semper Fidelis

 

Note: Slight error...my response ended up as comment #56 below!

 

Thank you for the attribution, Fall Guy; always very much appreciated. I would also go a step further in that very regard and say that there is indeed NO WRONG WAY TO COLLECT. That's the beauty of human individuality...we all like different things in a multitude of ways and to varying degrees.

 

then Id open it. Dealers or sellers would leave it unopened for a premium.

 

It really depends, for example, on your patience and/or endurance, among other relevant, i.e. deciding factors I might have neglected to mention in this regard.
As to me: Endurance...seemingly endless; patience...hardly any. If this seems like a contradiction, it's just the way it is, folks. Bada bing, bada boom.

 

"The former" means the first of two things offered while "The latter" (pronounced like ladder but with a t sound) means the second of two things offered.

 

In 1974 the mint made mint sets Im pretty sure, so they weren't taken out of circulation.