Got a call from my LCS this morning stating that a customer had brought in an 83D souvenir set. They knew I'd been trying to get the four sets from 82/83 so I went by at lunch and picked it up. 1 down and 3 to go. But it got me to thinking. Why were there no mint sets produced in those years? I've never read an actual explanation. The only things I can think of that were going on numismatically during that time was the switch from copper to zinc in the cents and the resumption of the commemorative program. But I can't imagine either of those having any sway on the mint set program. Is there a definitive answer for their absence?
Good question! The Red Book acknowledges the fact that the Mint only produced Souvenir Sets for those years, but no specific reason is given explaining why the regular Uncirculated Mint Sets were not. Chris
Technically, weren't (or "aren't") Souvenir Sets produced each year? I've heard of folks trying to put together date runs of those but I'd have to imagine early dates would be next to impossible. I'm thinking the only reason the 82 and 83's are still available is because collectors scooped them up in place of mint sets and have held on to them. Thus more retention. But if the mints could produce the souvenir sets, it's weird that they couldn't produce the mint sets. Heck, even the cellophane packaging is the same.
Here's a Coin Week article that discusses the issue. To make a long story short, the Reagan administration instituted numerous budget cuts, and the mint-set program was one of the things "we" decided taxpayer money shouldn't fund. (pull pin, run away...)
JeffB is correct, it was a short sighted attempt at budget cutting. I guess they thought that since they made all these coins for circulation anyway, why spend extra money making some up into sets?, Besides the collectors still had the proof sets. They never stopped to consider that they made a LOT more money on the sets than it cost them to make them. Plus it the Mint was self funding at that time (I don't know if that had started yet) stopping the sets wouldn't have reduced the budget anyway. In fact it was a budget cut that INCREASED the deficit.
That was an extremely helpful article! I especially found it interesting how it is estimated that the mintage of the individual sets are less than 20,000 as opposed to a million+ for a typical mint set. Also, the article seemed to imply that the mint sets were discontinued, less because they were perceived as a money-loss, and more due to the fact that staff cutbacks at the mint (designed to save money) meant there wasn't enough manpower to produce the regular sets. Very interesting stuff!
It's still hard to wrap my mind around the idea that there are collectors for whom this isn't an item of fairly recent-seeming personal memory. I'd swear Reagan was President a month or two ago. And when I log off here, it'll be either Christmas, or baseball season, or 2025.
The mint basically said "because edited, that's why". they do it all the time, it's kind of their thing.
Bay Buchanan didn't talk like that. People who knew her well used language like that, mostly starting with "What the...". Mostly the truth is that the United States Mint personnel then had no idea of what was important to the collecting public, and it has only gotten worse over the past 35 years. They don't employ even one single solitary person, that the upper brass will listen to, who understands numismatics or the collecting community.
Although I'm in my 50's now, I was only a teenager when Reagan took office and I wasn't yet interested in coins.
I know the feeling. After "Doctor Donna" was saved in the library her life became just the highlights with everything between snipped. It was a great Dr Who episode with the best line in the whole series by Dr Who himself; "don't tell me you're an archaeologist, I'm a time traveler and we just point at archaeologists and laugh". Everyone thought that everyone else was saving the new coins but when people went to get the '82 and '83 issues there weren't any. The problem is especially acute for nice Gems since most Gem clad has always come from mint sets and these dates were especially poorly made by worn dies that weren't adjusted properly. True Gems are virtually unknown for the Philly issue dimes and quarters. The high grades given by the grading companies are for poorly struck coins from bad dies. It's time to go get the bird for Thanksgiving.
They did a few years ago, and he was a member of the upper brass, Deputy Director. What's more, he was also a very active member of this forum. And he went out of his way to answer people's questions openly and honestly and to help them in any way he could by providing information. Of course when the Mint figured it out, they fired him for doing what he was doing. You see, even back then and still today, the upper brass at the US Mint reads this forum. And they even participate from time to time. So they DO know what's going on, they DO know what collectors want and think, they DO understand. So, given that, why are things the way they are ? Hard to say for sure, but personally, I think they just choose to ignore us because they think they know more about what collectors want than collectors do.
The Mint has long had antipathy toward collectors and I think they still do, but they want our money so they tolerate us.
The mint sure didn't love us in 1982. It was an unusual time for hobby/ mint relations. The mint knew nobody cared about circulation coins and nobody would complain about the abysmal quality of the coins being produced. They just went year after year cranking out the same old designs with different dates that nobody cared about. The only mint products were proof and mint sets but people apparently were buying them only because they were the only things you could buy. Congress had them producing gold medals and it was the year of the return of commems (Washington half), but even with the Washington coin quality was poor. People and collectors paid little heed to the mint or coins made for circulation. Collecting Gems of modern coins was in its infancy with most of the attention having been focused on Ikes the longest, Kennedys for only a couple years and the attention on nickels was new. The mint was likely aware of this new found interest but took no steps to improve quality until 1984 and actually suspended mint set production on Reagan's edict according to the mint. This suspension was critical because coins simply weren't being set aside in those days and most of the Gems were coming from mint sets. Many people didn't even notice that mint sets were discontinued and quality took a nose dive in '82. I couldn't find a nice '82-P quarter until the end of September even after extensive sampling all over the midwest. And then I found it virtually in my own front yard and literally at my own bank. Obtaining a bag of them was extremely difficult because there was no mechanism for buying a bag. The vault manager told me he called several other vault managers in the Chicago area and they had never heard of anyone requesting a bag of anything other than one cent coins! In retrospect the cessation of mint sets seems nearly a calculated move. These coins are really quite scarce in pristine condition but the fact isn't widely known so the demand is very low. All the '82 and '83 issues are fairly scarce and this especially applies to well struck examples in pristine condition. The mint eventually got what it wanted; vast profits on the coins made for circulation and its catalog.
