It is important for new folks to understand a couple of basic things regarding US Mint Products. 1. Proof Sets are made up of coins that are produced using a different manufacturing process than regular circulating coinage. (Highly Polished Blanks, Highly Polished Dies, Minimum of 2 strikes per coin, on a hand fed press). Proof Sets contain 1 example of each coin "denomination" made during the production year. 2. Mint Sets are made up of coins from the same manufacturing process that creates coins intended for circulation. (Cleaned Blanks, freshly created dies, single strike per coin on a high speed, machine fed, coining press). Mint sets contain an example of each coin produced for circulation during the production year. Typically one of each "denomination" from Philadelphia (P mintmark except for the Lincoln cent) and one of each denomination from Denver (D mintmark). On "one" occasion, the US Mint threw an oddball coin into a US Mint Set which was the 1996-W Roosevelt Dime in 1996 to commemorate 50 years of Roosevelt Dimes.
