I am curious what opinions are out there for US Mint strike types. Official mint nomenclature versus common parlance, and how different people categorise coins that are "special". Business strike Proof Reverse Proof Uncirculated Burnished SMS Special Strike Enhanced Specimen NIFC (where do these fit in?) ...others I am forgetting? Reason I am asking: I am trying to determine if my Business-strike only Box-of-100 is cheating if I have "burnished" coins or "special" coins in there. And just in general I want to now how other collectors feel on this matter. To me, I have generically referred to Special Strike coins like a Burnished American Silver eagle as "SMS", but I dont think thats technically accurate. There are coins realized in Special Mints Sets, and then there are coins that are just Special. My 1998 Kennedy 50C SMS coin, a special strike gets the "SP" designation in place of "MS" or "PR" but my ASE only get "MS". For me, I am currently organizing them like this, but please correct / educated me if you don't agree. I think there is a good argument to consider the special coins more as proofs than not. Business & Uncirculated & NIFC are grouped together. Can the terms be used interchangeably? Proof & Reverse Proof & Enhanced are grouped together. Are enhanced coins always closer to proofs than business strikes? SMS & Burnished & Special & Specimen are grouped together. Are the SP and MS prefix used capriciously by the TPG, or is there defined rules? Can SMS & Burnished & Special & Specimen coins be part of a "Business Strike Only" custom set or registry set, or not. Do you think these are really just proofs but with the more matte look of a business strike coin? Your thoughts are appreciated
Well….. I believe that it is a pretty fair assumption that the US mint recognizes that us collectors tend to be an OCD leaning crowd and when we decide we want “a set”, we will go to all lengths to complete it. And that has soured me a bit to all the finishes being offered by the US mint…. A set to me includes dates and mint marks and I have sets (three cent nickel) that include proofs to complete a date and mintmark set. Right or wrong, dates and mint marks complete a set for me.
My understanding and if I was building that set, I would only include coins the mint intended for circulation in commerce. I would have to draw the line there. Technically any coin minted can be used for commerce, we see them pop up from coin roll hunters. The only coins I think that could have a good argument for inclusion would be the NIFC coins that did not have special finishes. Kennedys, Sacagaweas, Presidential, and S-mint ATB Quarters for some years were sold to collectors only. I think including NIFC coins would open the door to special finishes. I wouldn't include anything in the proof category that wasn't brilliant(mirrored fields) or matte with square rims and well struck. Reverse and Enhanced proofs to me are special finishes. My grouping would be: Business strike or circulated coinage(mint intended) NIFC(collector coins for circulation) Proofs(brilliant or matte) Special finish(SMS, satin, reverse proof, enhanced etc.) Bullion(ASE business strike or Burnished)
If I look at how the coins are made, I see a lot of "distinction without a difference" in your list. For me, there are business strikes, proofs, and stuff in the gray area in between. It used to be that the gray area was coins that were neither struck completely in the manner of business strikes nor proofs. The 1965-67 SMS coins fit in this category. Earlier than that, a lot of other coins now collectively referred to as "specimen" were in that category as well. It used to be that a proof coin was the most ideal representation of a coin of that year/mint. Nothing to do with finish, as my stack of matte proof Lincolns tells me. Proofs are specially struck to be these idea coins on specially prepared planchets with specially prepared dies and handled with special care. Business strikes have none of these traits. The "standard" proofs today are actually not the most ideal representation of a coin, as the cameo finish degrades the design with lots of noise. "Reverse proof" is a nonsense term that means something more like "reverse cameo". These actually have a better rendering of the design because the design isn't obliterated with a cameo finish. The other special finishes currently used are basically just different proofs, as I think they're manufactured the same way.
