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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 836925, member: 68&quot;]These aren&#039;t minor considerations to me.&nbsp; I&#039;ve made no secret of the fact that I&#039;ve long believed that collectors are missing the boat on moderns and especially the mint state clad moderns.&nbsp; My early interest was mostly just statistical as I watched the coins enter circulation and become worn but I had no interesty as a collector because I considered them to be ugly debased junk.&nbsp; I had no interest as an investor because the mint kept releasing old coins that had gotten lost in the back of a vault or warehouse.&nbsp; Why bother to invest in coins that were just going to be released in large numbers later on.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>By 1972 the quarters were getting so interesting that I was considering setting some aside and collecting them anyway but at that time it was announced that the mint and FED were switching to FIFO accounting which required that they rotate the coins iin storage.&nbsp; Whatever coins were in the back of the vault had tro be released first.&nbsp; This was when I started seeking out nice specimens and setting them aside for the future. At that time my motivation was mostly &quot;investment&quot;.&nbsp; (hey, I was young and foolish).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Over the years I discovered mint sets and found a readier source for gems.&nbsp; Depending on the date&nbsp; gems for circulation varied from about .01% to about 2% so could be exceedingly elusive.&nbsp; But the mint set coins were fairly steady at 2% and varied from 1% to about 8%.&nbsp; Finding gems in the mint sets was like shooting fish in a barrel.&nbsp; The only downside is that the mint sets were expensive especially in the old days.&nbsp; This meant a continued reliance on finding gems from rolls especially in years that they were available. </p><p><br /></p><p>This distinction between mint set coibns and regular issues is of some import to me since I do have something of a stake in the coins.&nbsp; This isn&#039;t to say that this stake is coloring my perspective just that it exists.&nbsp; If collectors believed the mint set coins were distinct like the SMS or the satin finish it would decrease the value of most of my coins since even those I got from circulation often have a mint set appearance;&nbsp; Not all, but the fact is really high grade circulation issues much more often look like mint set coins.&nbsp; Really poor mint set coins are much more easily mistaken for circulation issues.&nbsp; A lot of the difference between mint set and regular issue coins really is quality.&nbsp; In practice they are usually distinguishable but this is largely because the quality of roll coins is lower.&nbsp; The strike and die condition is poorer.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I get pretty confident many times in my ability to distinguish a mint set coin from a circulation issue.&nbsp; Even on lightly circulated coins I feel I can spot the difference almost all the time.&nbsp; I recently got my comeuppance.&nbsp; I got two very lightly circulated coins from&nbsp; rolls, a &#039;79-D and an &#039;84-D.&nbsp; Both were &quot;obviously&quot; mint set coins.&nbsp; They both had the booming luster under light wear and they were both very nicely struck.&nbsp; These are very unusual finds now days and I was toying with the idea that some dealer cut a very large number of sets and both these just happened to come my way a few months later.&nbsp; Well long story long, after I look at all the obverses I look at the reverses of the keepers (one per three rolls on average).&nbsp; Both of these coins had the type &quot;d&quot; reverse which doesn&#039;t appear in mint sets so neither could have come from a mint set.&nbsp; A lot of people have been dumping coins they&#039;ve sets aside since 1999 recently and I just lucked into a couple really nice (and non-mint set coins).&nbsp; The &#039;84-D isn&#039;t all that great in AU since the mintage was quite high and there are a few uncs around but the mintage of the &#039;79-D was quite low and this coin is scarce above F condition.&nbsp; AU&#039;s will be quite scarce.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>So bottom line, in my experience, is thatr you can tell them apart but not consistently.&nbsp; No matter how typical a coin is it might not really be what you think it is.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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