mint set grading

Any of the mint sets after1967 are not cost effective to counterfeit. I'd say those are safe enough to buy on ebay. Now any numismatic related purchase over $100 is always a huge gamble on the internet, especially on ebay. Just because a power seller has 10,000+ positive feedbacks, doesn't mean he always knows what he is selling, or isn't using creative photographing techniques. I always make larger coin purchases in person from a dealer I can trust, and always document where, when, and how much I paid. That way when it comes time to sell (and if there's a problem), I at least know the source of the problem.

 

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This is true for every date except the '82 and '83's. These were available mail order and this probably accounts for the higher mintages of these (10,000 to 20,000).

The fact they were available was very poorly known or mintages would have been far higher. The Numismatic press didn't even pick up the story. This was right in my ballpark and I didn't know until the mid-'90's. Apparently the mint sent the stories to the wire services and only a few newspapers with collectibles columns ran it. Of course there wasn't a lot of interest even among those who knew. There was almost no interest in new coins in those days and even less in the quality of the new coin. The mint had been putting the best quality coins in the sets for nearly two decades at that time and no one even noticed.

We might have hurt their feelings.

 

Just a footnote: I have in the past purchased '60 - '64 proof sets from APMEX, a reputable dealer, which were advertised as sealed for a slight premium.

 

They may have been sealed when you purchased them, heck, they could have even been sealed when APMEX purchased them, but one thing is fairly certain:

They were not sealed when they left the Mint. Either someone sealed them, or the atmosphere did.