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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;hic, post: 2789013, member: 88523&quot;]hi - i&#039;d like to add, for me, the REAL question, is how to tell if the OLDER coins ever really came from original u.s. mint sets.... </p><p><br /></p><p>how would i be able to tell if the &quot;ORIGINAL&quot; (say from the early 40&#039;s or prior to 1955) coins had been removed and replaced with cleaned or &quot;dipped&quot; coins......</p><p><br /></p><p>all proof &quot;sets&quot; prior to 1950 are virtually all in plastic &quot;cases&quot; these days - no original packing whatsoever.... so, as these are &quot;hand&quot; assembled - (by hands OTHER then official &quot;u.s. mint&quot; hands) unless you can somehow TRUST the seller - you don&#039;t really know what you&#039;re getting......</p><p><br /></p><p>and while there&#039;s no denying a proof coin when you see one - the issue gets much more muddled when discussing actual MINT (uncirculated as opposed to proof) sets&nbsp; - many official &quot;uncirculated&quot; <b><i><u>sets</u></i></b> (prior to 1960) were shipped in cardboard with holes cut out to hold the coins (sorta like those old blue whitman folders we use today) again though - how does one tell if the coins in these sets, are &quot;original&quot; coins that were &quot;originally&quot; packaged by &quot;official&quot; u.s. mint employees? and does it really matter?</p><p><br /></p><p>having all coins in the SAME &quot;pilofilm&quot; package, took the guess work out...that is,&nbsp; you KNEW, because of the packaging, at the very least, that all these coins</p><p>were &quot;uncirculated&quot; or MS 60....</p><p><br /></p><p>when you buy someone elses, hand assembled &quot;SET&quot; - unless one is pretty well versed in grading themselves, they don&#039;t know what they&#039;re getting.....</p><p><br /></p><p>if they&#039;re never going to sell the coins, it may not matter, but personally, i&#039;d hate to buy what i think are uncirculated coins - die and leave them to somebody - only to have THAT person find out years later that the coins are really not worth much because - guess what - they&#039;re not &quot;genuine&quot; or they&#039;re kinda ruined, because they&#039;re been cleaned or dipped. etc.....</p><p><br /></p><p>so here&#039;s the question - if i personally assemble one of each denomination from the phily &amp; denver mints dated 1950 - i still don&#039;t have a &quot;sanctioned&quot;, official 1950&#039;s P &amp; D u.s. mint set - what i have,&nbsp; is a set of 1950&#039;s P &amp; D coins - not a 1950&#039;s &quot;u.s. mint set&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>subtle - but still a big difference...... if all i want, is one coin from each denomination by date and mintmark, then there&#039;s no problem....</p><p>but if i want to collect official u.s. mint / proof &quot;SETS&quot;...then &quot;houston.......</p><p><br /></p><p>and the only reason i wanted the &quot;official&quot; sets, was because that&#039;s the ONLY way i know of to insure the coins are &quot;real&quot; and have not been altered / cleaned, dipped, etc.....but i&#039;m NOT going to find that going back prior to 1955...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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