Hello, I'm getting into looking through old mint sets, basically cherry picking a my local coin show. I noticed the mint released Special Mint Sets in years they did not create proof sets in the late 60's. Are these worth looking into? The dealer had them priced at $8 a set in the original slim mint blue box and some of the coins look amazing. The dealer, which wasn't very knowledgeable about coins at all, just wanted to resell these since they bought a huge lot of them.
$8 sounds like a reasonable price. I would look into it, but, right now, I collect mint sets from the 1950s and early 1960s. If you would enjoy having a collection of the three Special Mint Sets, then it would definitely be worth paying $24 for them.
There are a couple of varieties listed in the CPG for the SMS quarters and about 8 varieties for the SMS Kennedy halves, but I don't know if they would be worth flipping or even encapsulation. I don't think $8 per set would be a bad price. I paid $10 per set about 14 years ago. Chris
They are what they are. $8 is reasonable. You could probably find them for less, but then you'd be trading your time for a dollar or two savings. I have a '66 SMS and the coins lack a lot of details, probably from the mint over polishing the dies in an attempt to make em look more proof like. So ... meh. I do not know what to look for as far as varieties/errors - others may help you in that regard.
The mint system issued these sets when collectors were on the outs with the government because the coin hoarding that occurred starting in 1964. The government blamed collectors and stopped producing Proof sets. The Special Mint Sets were a temporary, inferior substitute at much higher issue prices. (incresed from $2.10 for Proofs to $4 for SMS) Some of these coins, especially the 1965 sets, were not very nice and were quite similar to pocket change. Some coins, especially toward the end, 1967, to pretty close to being Proof coins. Yes, $8 is reasonable especially for nice sets that contain coins without marks or spots.
I've had good hunting in every year of the SMS series for varieties. You'll find a lot of struck throughs too as it seemed they had an issue with keeping loose items from finding their way into the presses. Look them over carefully, the plastic cases on the '66 & '67's were not sealed and can easily be opened.
I pulled these from SMS sets, and they have special meaning for me because JT signed the inserts at the FUN Show. R.I.P. JT!
$8.00 is a good price. You may even get a better price if you buy a few sets. There are 3 SMS's and varieties exist.
