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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 1261690, member: 68&quot;]Finding gems in mint sets really is like shooting fish in a barrel.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Don&#039;t get me wrong gems can be extremely challenging and even impossible for some dates but almost every coin is well made so it&#039;s mostly a matter of finding one that&#039;s clean.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>About a third of &#039;90-D or &#039;91-D cents are fully gem in mint sets and choice gem runs about 10%.&nbsp; Superb gems are fairly &quot;common&quot; at about 4%.&nbsp; Higher grades are tough but do exist.&nbsp; Many of these are also PL but they tend not to be as PL as earlier issues.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>You&#039;ll come out way ahead for some dates looking at rolls and way ahead looking at mint sets for others.&nbsp; But almost everything appears as a gem at least once in a while in sets.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s easy to get a rythmm going looking at sets.&nbsp; I can check about ten sets a minute if the dealer just has small quantities.&nbsp; If you have large quantities you can do it even faster by taking them out of the envelope and looking at all the red packets and then all the blue.&nbsp; You get better at recognizing gems this way too since they just &quot;pop&quot; when you come to one.&nbsp; It just takes a little while to put them back in the envelopes.&nbsp; Most dealers will let you &quot;mix and match&quot; so each set will have a couple gems.&nbsp; I always pay a little extra for the priveledge and straighten out his sets in the process.&nbsp; I&#039;ll take the sets with no envelope and be sure all his sets are complete.&nbsp; It&#039;s a win/ win situation.&nbsp; Look for the bigger dealers who accumulate stuff like this.&nbsp; It&#039;s best to hit them right before they&#039;re going to ship it off so you get the widest selection and save them a little shipping weight.&nbsp; If dealers know you&#039;re looking they&#039;ll save it for you.&nbsp; There&#039;s still no competition for most of these so you might have a lot of sets to pick through.&nbsp; The big wholesalers have people who go through them but they miss stuff so they aren&#039;t a waste of time.&nbsp; The closer you get to the sets that walk in the door the better the quality.&nbsp; Most of these sets come from the original purchaser and are not choiced out.&nbsp; Look for lots of five and fresh envelopes.&nbsp; A first name on an envelope is a good sign.&nbsp; Be sure to check for varieties since these can pay the premiums for the gems.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Just like in rolls everything comes in runs.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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