US type set complete, sans gold and 18th century rarities. I'd like to upgrade and perhaps the last year of mintage of each type be an interesting way to go. Anyone done this and your thoughts? Thanks folks.
Why the last year of mintage? I buy the highest grades I can afford for my US type set (usually a common year), always looking for nicely toned coins with original surfaces. I've added the $1, $2.5, $5 and $10 gold coins to my NGC 7070 set, as I think they're a much better "investment" (for the lack of a better word) than early copper coins, which can be quite expensive too.
Sounds fun. I worked on a first year of issue set for a while but it was too slow finding a coin I really liked.
There may be a snag by going with the "last year of mintage". Some of those are keys or semi-keys. The Liberty V nickels come to mind. Ignoring the 1913, the 1912-D and -S are semi-keys hence pricier. The 1912 would offer you the way out of that problem if you don't want a complete "last year of mintage" set for them. And some are proof-only. In this case the 2-cent issue ends in 1873 with proofs (expensive). If you limit yourself to only business strikes, the 1872 is one of the keys (expensive). I suggest you grab your Red Book and plan out your set more definitively.
Whatever interests you and engages you most is the way to go. That said, there's often another problem with the last year of mintage besides those pointed out, especially for 20th century designs. The detail on the master die for each successive year decreases, and even well struck coins lack detail. Compare a 1958 Lincoln with a 1909, and a 1938-D Buffalo with a 1913 for the best examples of this, but even shorter runs like Franklin halves show this. For a type set, I'd want sharp detail on the coin as the sculptor intended. For this reason, I'd want something from the first few years of production. Often, the first year has some experimenting and fiddling with the design, but by the second year, the design is more stable. Perhaps using the second year of production rather than the last would be interesting.
I would think that your idea has its merits. A note to remember: Sometimes the last year of issue is heavily saved and the coins may have little value. Some times, as Kanga mentioned, they are odd issues or key dates, but there are ways around this. I might recommend as Larry (ldhair) has that you just collect a common date coin of each type. The more open your opportunities for selecting coins, the easier it will be to find suitable examples. I love type set collecting. If I can be of any help, please let me know.
