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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1677396, member: 112&quot;]SMS stands for Special Mint Set. This coin, and the &#039;94, came as part of a Special Mint Set. That is why most people <u>do</u> refer to them as SMS coins, and correctly so. You will find them referred to as SMS coins in various articles, literature, and auctions. Even the Red Book lists them as Special Unc.</p><p><br /></p><p>So where does the confusion come from ? Why do some say they are SMS and some say they are not SMS ? It comes from the TPGs of course, the entities that too many people think of as always being right. If they (the TPGs) say something is or something is not - then it simply must be so.</p><p><br /></p><p>However - even they are confused and cannot make up their minds. Examples - </p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a &#039;94 sold at auction in Feb. 2000. It is listed as an SMS by the auction company, but PCGS slabbed it as SP - </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=20022&amp;lotNo=2108" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=20022&amp;lotNo=2108" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=20022&amp;lotNo=2108</a></p><p><br /></p><p>And here is another &#039;94 sold at auction in 2010 and listed and described by the auction company as SMS, and slabbed by PCGS as SMS - </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1137&amp;lotNo=353" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1137&amp;lotNo=353" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1137&amp;lotNo=353</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Same kind of thing happens with the &#039;97 coin - </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=331&amp;lotNo=500" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=331&amp;lotNo=500" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=331&amp;lotNo=500</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=305&amp;lotNo=563" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=305&amp;lotNo=563" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=305&amp;lotNo=563</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=309&amp;lotNo=441" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=309&amp;lotNo=441" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=309&amp;lotNo=441</a></p><p><br /></p><p>When it comes right down to it the labels SMS and SP are merely used to set the coins apart from other ordinary Proof and business strike coins. Both labels do the job. You can argue all day about one being more correct than the other. But to my way of thinking the coins did not come from the mint as part of a Specimen set, they came as part of a Special Mint Set, just like the &#039;65, &#039;66, and &#039;67 SMS coins did because they were different from the ordinary sets issued by the mint.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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