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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 357576, member: 68&quot;]I believe you&#039;re right about dies being chrome plated.&nbsp; They have said proof dies are chrome plated to make the cameo effect last longer.&nbsp; It&#039;s likely they&#039;ve done some other sort of die prep to make the satin finish.&nbsp; I&#039;ve started looking at these coins only recently and they are not so dramatically different from some older mint set coins.&nbsp; And some appear to be nearly identical to the older mint set coins which really means they are identical to the best made of the circulation issues as well.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps there will be more information forthcoming but to my knowledge this is all they have said to date.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve long suspected the earlier mint set coins (pre-65) were pulled out of circulation runs. The same applies to the &#039;71 to &#039;98 souvenir set coins.&nbsp; It appears they just went out on the floor and selected nice examples.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In 1965 the mint and government were trying to punish collectors because they were percieved as responsible for the coin shortage.&nbsp; Initially there were to be no mint or proof sets offered after &#039;64.&nbsp; San Francisco was pressed into service to help alleviate the coin shortage and&nbsp; the numismatic equipment was shipped there.&nbsp; When the SMS&#039;s were finally put into production it was apparently done with the old proof set equipment and it appears they continued with many of these changes even after the true mint set was resumed in 1968.&nbsp; In any case when mint set production resumed in 1968 the coins had much more in common with the SMS coins than they did with the pre-&#039;65 mint sets.&nbsp; The dies didn&#039;t recieve the proof treatment like the SMS&#039;s but they were otherwise the same.&nbsp; There are some very PL examples of most dates in these sets after &#039;64.&nbsp; Indeed, some of the post-&#039;86 coins look very much like branch mint proofs.&nbsp; There are &#039;91-D quarters which are fully struck, virtually flawless, extremely lustrous, and having fully square rims.&nbsp; &#039;88-D cents are nearly common like this (~.5%).&nbsp; Some of the Philly&#039;s from the late &#039;70&#039;s are also highly PL.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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