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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 21410474, member: 101855"]OOPS! I forgot to finish this. 1957 Proof Set, Mintage 1,247,952 [ATTACH=full]1542791[/ATTACH] This marked the first year that Proof set production exceeded 1 million. A good part of the reason way was that people noted that you could make a profit by buying the sets for $2.10 at the mint and selling them to dealers. This was especially true if you got your sets early in the year. Walter Breen in his Proof coin book claimed that the Prudential Insurance Company of America bought 100,000 sets as an investment. Unfortunately for them and others the mintage was too high, and the wholesale price fell below the issue price to $1.81. The price recovered, this set is still cheaper than some of the later issues. 1958 Proof Set, Mintage 875,652 [ATTACH=full]1542792[/ATTACH] The losses sustained on the 1957 sets plus a mild recession probably lowered the Mint's Proof set sales in 1958. Otherwise, there is nothing remarkable about this set. It has also sold for a bit more than the other dates in this era. 1959 Proof Set, Mintage 1,149,219 [ATTACH=full]1542793[/ATTACH] The mintage popped up to over 1 million again in 1959, and would remain there in subsequent years. The big news for collectors was the introduction of the Lincoln Memorial Cent reverse. 1960 Proof Set, Mintage 1,691,602 Small Date [ATTACH=full]1542794[/ATTACH] Large Date [ATTACH=full]1542795[/ATTACH] The big news in 1960 was the Small Date Cent. At first the mint claimed that there was no intentional difference in the date. Then they admitted that it had been changed, probably to make the date easier to read. The Small Date 1960 cent was once a big deal. If you look back at old Red Books, you will see prices of $50 for it in Proof. Those numbers were for real. Collectors really did pay those premiums at one time. I was shocked when I looked at a recent Grey Sheet and saw that the bid price difference between Small and Large Date sets had fallen to only $2. It's one more example of how modern coin prices can fall dramatically because of the mintages and lack of demand. 1961 Proof Set, Mintage 3,028,244 [ATTACH=full]1542797[/ATTACH] 1962 Proof Set, Mintage 3,218,019 [ATTACH=full]1542798[/ATTACH] 1963 Proof Set, Mintage 3,075,645 [ATTACH=full]1542799[/ATTACH] There is not much exciting to say about these sets except for the fact that the mintage exceeded 3 million, which high even by today's standards. The main reason why they have any sort of value is that they contain 85 cents in 90% silver coinage. 1964 Proof Set, Mintage 3,950,762 [ATTACH=full]1542801[/ATTACH] The Kennedy Half Dollar was all the rage in 1964. Everybody wanted one, including non-collectors. For that reason the Proof set mintage almost reached 4 million. Some people cut out that half dollar and spent the rest of the coins from the set. One of coin dealers at Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia told me that they were getting Proof dimes in the cash register. At one point the retail price for the 1964 Proof set hit $35. Adjusting for inflation that would be about $338 in todays dollars. Of course the price has since settled well below that number. Interest in the Accented Hair variety of the Kennedy Half Dollar came along years later. Coin collectors were hated group among government officials in 1964-5. We were blamed for creating a coin shortage. The real problem lay with the fact that the price of silver was set to increase so that the melt value of the coins in circulation would go beyond their face value. That didn't happen for a while, but the market for 90% silver coins got its start during the decade of the 1960s. The mint stopped issuing Proof sets and issued Special Mint Sets instead. The issue price for these lesser coins was increased from $2.10 to $4.00. Proof sets made a return in 1968. At that time, all of them were issued from the San Francisco Mint. [ATTACH=full]1542802[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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