Future Key Dates?

http://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Buffalo-Silver-Dollar-Proof/dp/B00AVYOFCE

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Thanks, I missed that one, so I've only seen it listed as the Buffalo.

 

Me too.

 

The buffalo dollar surcharges were to help fund a museum on the Native-American at the Smithsonian.

There are several commem dollars with lower mintages than the 96 Smithsonian dollar or Jackie Robinson dollar.
95D paralympics 28,649
95D Track and Field 24,976
95D cycling 19,662
95D Tennis 15,983
96D paralympics 14,497
96D rowing 16,258
96D high jump 15,697
96S National Community Service 23,500
97 National Law Enforcement 28,575
2000 Leif Ericson 28,150

The 95 and 96 olympic dollars have long been recognized as the keys to the commem dollar series.

 

By you, perhaps. A lot of collectors love the Smithsonian and Jackie Robinson, and see them as keys. It isn't only about mintage... Popularity is a big factor. Look at the prices on the American Buffalo coins,despite high mintages.

 

Well your right the prices of the olympic dollars have dropped quite a bit and the buffalo has surpassed them. I still find is strange that a coin with a mintage of close to 250,000 which is readily available should be worth so much more than a coin with a mintage of less than 15,000. Long term I think I would still bet on the olympic coins. Now Jackie Robinson has both low mintage and popularity going for it.

 

low mintage and popularity are the KEYS to being considered a key date coin.

The demand has to be stronger than the supply and the series over all must be popular. Without one of those two legs, (series popularity, demand higher than supply) key date status will not be achieved.

 

Not sure where you're looking, but Coin World has all the 1996 Olympic unc dollars higher than the Buffalo. I'd bet on all the lower mintage commems over the Buffalo in the long run. Once was a time when you had to pay $200 for a Buffalo and lately I've seen MS69's for as low as $130. Most numismatic value is down in this economy.

 

I'm inclined to agree with this. Not only are some of the mintage numbers low, but the satin finish is very eye-appealing. The 2009 set is particularly attractive because of the one-year-only bicentennial cents. The pennies in these sets use a 95-3-2 alloy of copper, zinc, and tin, same as the cents minted from 1909 to 1942. No tawdry copper-plated zinc in this collection.

Also, the "state" quarters in this set are all US territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, and Southern Mariana Islands.

I don't speculate, so I don't much care about future keys, and I don't even collect mint sets, but this one is just too good to pass up for its numismatic interest.

 

Because of the popularity of grading and the "finer" detail type designations, the low pop full bell lines, full steps, full split banding, etc. has morphed into a new type of "key" designation of sorts. A 52-S Franklin is not a low mintage key, but a high graded FBL certainly is.

 

Granted, there is a market for high grade, high mintage coins – but, the jury is still out on whether or not this market will hold. Sure, I’m always willing to pay more for a higher quality coin, but I’m not willing to pay a lot more for one grade higher, which equates to a miniscule difference in eye appeal, if it’s even noticeable all.

 

To add to this, I don’t know how many have noticed, but the satins are a little more than a “matte” finish. They are currently designated by PCGS as SP, which means Special Proof. I know they irritated many collectors who looked to mint sets to find high grade business strikes, but what you got instead was a Special Proof that is clearly a low mintage different type than business strikes.

 

SP means Specimen, not Special Proof and it is a common term used for Mint set coins that differ from regular circulation strikes.

The satin finish coins are not proofs, they are not struck the same as proofs, and the planchets don't receive special treatment like proofs.

 

Looks like you are correct, SP according to PCGS means Specimen. Strange, I Googled it Saturday for a customer and it came up Special Proof, but can’t find the site.

Not sure how the planchets were prepared for the satins, but for other coins designated SP, I believe the P-Pucks, they are prepared and double struck like proofs.

The satins were struck with extra pressure, so they do have high rims or a thick edge and better detail, like proofs.

Edit: Here's a link that says the satin planchets were burnished, like proofs. Makes since or they wouldn't look as good as they do. The only thing I ‘d take exception to in the article is the comparison of the satins to much higher mintage and less unique 1960’s SMS sets.
http://mintnewsblog.com/2010/12/end-of-satin-finish-officially/

 

The 2009 copper business strike Lincoln cents. These were only available within the 2009 US Mint Sets and that set sold less than a million units (perhaps 750K). This makes the coin a very scarce, in terms of mintage and relatively speaking, Lincoln cent. The Lincoln cent series is avidly collected, the post-Wheat cent sub-section is a series that is long, but affordable to most collectors in high grade and filling Dansco/Whitman albums with Lincoln cents is still wildly popular and a great entry set for younger numismatists who might wish to finish the set in higher grades when they have more money. These coins may also be viewed as a separate type because of the metallic change and various reverse designs.

Therefore, the 2009 Lincoln cents have various reverses that might be considered a distinct subtype; they are part of the most popular album filling set produced; their original mintage was relatively low; and they could only be found in US Mint Sets and this means that folks will have to buy them instead of finding them in change. I like the long-term legs on these coins, especially if Whitman and Dansco incorporate holes denoted for the copper pieces in their albums.

 

I agree, except the bronze cents in the mint set are satin finish, not business strikes.

 

Dansco 7100 has 8 ports for P and D cents of 2009, The Littleton Memorial Cent album has anniversary ports as well. I'm not sure Whitman has updated their Memorial Cent album into the 21st century - the various editions I could find end at 1998.

You would think that the Whitman 20th/21st Century Type album would have four slots for 2009 cents, but there's only one, which is the reason I didn't get it. But other series are streamlined as well - no differentiation between Type I and Type II Buffalo Nickels, only one slot for the Westward Journey Nickels, etc...it's altogether too simplistic for my tastes.

The Littleton Memorial album is odd, too - slots for proof coins start at 1975. Is there something special about the earlier proofs to warrant excluding them? They seem readily available and inexpensive to me...

 

My guess as to why the proofs start in 1975 is because up until 1974, circulation strike coins were made at San Francisco. All S minted Lincoln Cents from 1975-date are proof coins. Since most album collectors seek coins by date and m/m, the likelihood in my opinion of the proof only from 1975 is because if you want an S mint, it has to be a proof coin beyond that date.

Unless Whitman's albums have slots for the satin finish coins, which were made in a different composition, as well as slots for the circulation strikes, I believe that the mainstream appeal will be limited.

 

True, sure would help Satin’s popularity if there were holes in the folders/albums. In the 2015 Red Book, Whitman began publishing the 2009 Satin Cent mintages as a separate line item under cents – it’s a start. If the publishers continue to exclude readily available coins from their products, they will continue becoming less relevant to the hobby, as they’re doing now.

Now, I’d like to see Capital make a nice Plexiglas display for the 2009 Satin Cents and maybe one for each of the Satin series.

 

I see, thank you! Then one would expect a comprehensive set to include slots for the earlier proofs from Philiadelphia and the San Fransisco proofs that ran concurrently with IFC coins starting in 1968. I can't find a list of the slots in this album, though - if anyone has it, fill me in please!

Not to mention the proofs...