Well. not that early I guess. After reading here about the newly made envelopes being sold for the late fifties proof sets, I became suspicious enough to open one that I had. It is a 1956 and there are a couple questions I have about it. What all should be inside of the envelope? Should it have been a side opening envelope or an end opening envelope like my 1963 which I KNOW is genuine? Should it have a certificate in it? Are there telltale signs in the quality of paper and print on the envelope? The coins are OK. Now, the dime obverse is cameo, but not the reverse. The nickel reverse is cameo, but not the obverse. The rest are typical "last strike" coins common in these sets. Is there any added value to the nickel and dime? What would a grading service likely do in this case? I am a generally experienced collector not well versed in this particular area. Thanks!
I doesn't have a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) as we know it but it should have a little note from the Mint thanking you for purchasing the set. It should be a normal opening (Opens along the long edge) envelope. The cameos will be worth more, even on just one side, since the older mint set were not prone to camoes unless, like you said, they were first strikes. I am surprised that the coins only have one side cameo because I thought that the dies were replaced in pairs (reverse and obverse) during minting.
The envelope is a end open type but the paper and font are virtually identical to what they are supposed to be. Mine contained the set plus a folded corrugated piece of cardboard, thats all. I have had extremely good luck on ebay, but this time it looks like I may have learned something. I'm not out much though I guess.
There were some Proof sets from the '50s where the envelope opened at the end. They did have corrugated cardboard inside on each side of the pliofilm sleeve that contained the coins. The note mentioned was usually an orange or green piece of heavy paper with the printed message about the set. Sounds like all you are missing is the note. Other than that it sounds original.
I think one of the years they had it open on the end was 1957---I think I have one but it is missing the piece of paper... Speedy
