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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 785026, member: 68&quot;]Let&#039;s take&nbsp; a really bad date like the &#039;71-P.&nbsp; They made about 163,000,000 of these so it&#039;s common as dirt, right?&nbsp; Well 160 million were made on regular presses and probably fewer than 10,000,000 could have graded gem by today&#039;s standard the instant they were made because of worn dies and poor stikes.&nbsp; By the time they were ejected into the equipment it was winnowed down to 8 million.&nbsp; But then came the real punishment; they were run down conveyors and dumped into bins and counters.&nbsp; Then they were put into bags and tossed around from point to point until they were mixed into the circulating coinage by 1975.&nbsp; Of course by the time the brand new coin hit the banks there were probably well fewer&nbsp; than a million gems left.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>But as unceremoniously as these coins were treated the unkindest cut of all was that collectors didn&#039;t care.&nbsp; They set aside a tiny percentage of this issue and the gems fared little or no better.&nbsp; Perhaps fewer than a couple thousand true gems were actually set aside.&nbsp; To these the years haven&#039;t been kind as owners were told by coin shop operators to &quot;just spend them&quot; when they were brought in.&nbsp; Fire, flood and loss has affected many of the rest.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Sure there are about 75,000,000 of these surviving in circulation but have you taken a close look at these recently?&nbsp; Finding a nice attractive coin with minimal wear will prove impossible without a very concerted effort.&nbsp; There are a few hundred thousand mint sets left but only about 10% of mint set coins are very gemmy and 5% would go true gem. </p><p><br /></p><p>So there you have it.&nbsp; So long as the demand for the clads stays low the prices will remain low because the only true rarity is the &#039;75 No-S.&nbsp; But there are lots of coins that are tough nice or tough with Full Bands.&nbsp; There are lots that have low mintages or poor survival rates and any sort of real demand would take them all off the market.&nbsp; How many people can own a &#039;68 DDO when only about 6% of the half million surviving sets have one?&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Someday the day will come when there is interest in new coins again and this might include the older clads that have been around nearly half a century now.&nbsp; When it happens there will be even fewer of these coins because they ain&#039;t making &#039;em any longer.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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