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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 286559, member: 68&quot;]Hi.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are several reasons these states issues are rare in superb condition.&nbsp; The major one is that they were generally very poorly made.&nbsp; The mint always has trouble with a new design for a few years before they get the bugs worked out of it so all the states coins are susceptable to being poorly made.&nbsp; Some of the designs just naturally strike up well so this isn&#039;t a problem with all of them.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>When the first states coins came out collectors had been studiously ignoring current coins for more than a generation.&nbsp; The general public didn&#039;t pay much more attention to them.&nbsp; This meant the mint didn&#039;t have customer pressure to make nice coins.&nbsp; They had reduced the relief of the designs for years to make them easier to coin and still the standards were quite low.&nbsp; Even the low relief coins rolled out of the mint with weak strikes and covered in scratches.&nbsp; They continued this same practice with the states coins but now it was met with howls from all fronts; people demanded better.&nbsp; The mint responded and all the coinage is being made a little better.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Initially, too, people didn&#039;t realize how big the states quarters were going to be and insufficient numbers were saved of the hundreds of millions minted.&nbsp; Most new collectors don&#039;t even think about saving nice examples and might have a poorly made coin that kicked around in circulation in their collection.&nbsp; As they become more sophisticated and compare the various coins then they start wanting all the coins nicer or at least to meet some minimum standard.&nbsp; This puts extra demand on the small supplies of mostly poorly made coinage.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Almost invariably since 1964 the best coins have gone into mint sets and apparently 1999 quarters were no exception.&nbsp; However, 1999 mint set quarters tend to be pretty poor, especially DE and PA.&nbsp; Also the premium above the total value of the coins for the set is very high.&nbsp; This means that it&#039;s impossible to cut up quantities of sets and make a profit on the too scarce gems since you lose this premium when the set is destroyed.&nbsp; Of course you could cut only those sets which are profitable but then you&#039;re left looking for large numbers of sets to check or selling large numbers of sets at retail.&nbsp; It can be difficult and time consuming to find sufficient numbers of sets unless you have good contacts and selling anything retail can be difficult.&nbsp; There is a very low spread on modern mint products so this is an easier field than most.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>A lot of people just can&#039;t accept that well made and well preserved moderns can be rare.&nbsp; It seems to surprise even more when the coin is an ultramodern such as &#039;99 quarters.&nbsp; A lot of recent coins will prove to be elusive even in just unc condition.&nbsp; Try finding a roll of &#039;98-D nickels for example.&nbsp; The simple fact is that since 1972 coins don&#039;t save themselves any longer.&nbsp; In the old days coins would be saved as backing for paper or lost in bank vaults.&nbsp; They could get in the back of a FED vault and sit there in pristine condition for decades.&nbsp; This assured not only uncs of old coins but a steady supply of nice XF&#039;s and AU&#039;s in circulation.&nbsp; In 1972 the mint switched to FIFO accounting which meant they had to rotate their stocks on a First In- First Out basis.&nbsp; There are now only the coins that were saved intentionally and collectors quit saving new coins in 1965.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There are lots of &quot;opportunities&quot; to profit in the later coins but, as always there are numerous pitfalls.&nbsp; Be very careful before trying to get into these markets and do your homework.&nbsp; As always most people find collecting coins to be the surest way to have fun and &quot;profit&quot;.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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