Any Books On Unc. Mint Sets ?
DoubleDime
Posts: 634 ✭✭✭
I have a couple of books on Proof Sets but have yet to find any on Unc. Mint sets. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong area.
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I thought there was a Red Book on these, but I guess not.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I guess there's isn't any books.
@DoubleDime... The MegaRed lists all the sets issued by the mint, and quantity of coins. No other details though. Cheers, RickO
There is this;
https://www.amazon.com/United-States-Proof-Sets-1936-2002/dp/0974539406
I can't recommend it and it is woefully out of date. Everything about mint sets has changed since it was written and I don't believe it was "state of the art" even when written.
Proof sets have changed somewhat as well. There aren't so many around any longer and the attrition is far higher in some dates than others.
The only way to really appreciate mint sets is to get a bunch of a single date and compare each issue between them. The problem now is the huge difficulty in obtaining original sets. Usually you'll have to buy them 5 or 10 at a time and they are rarely representative of what was made. More accurately it's difficult for a novice to tell what's original and what isn't.
If you obtain sets from the original buyers which are heavily overrepresented in dealer stock then there's a good probability of seeing original. Other sources are likely to be picked over. Varieties appear with a stunning regularity since they are well mixed. However, many varieties have been picked over now days. Things like '70-S sm dt cents disappeared in the mid-'90's, cameo SMS in the early '80's, and '74--D DDO half dollars early in this century. These make ideal markers to tell if a batch of sets is original or not and don't require experience. The only way to be confident of originality is to open the boxes yourself but don't be surprised when boxes contain only junk and no varieties. Only about two sets in three contained a gemmy coin when they were made and these were usually dimes. Now days a lot of sets need to be soaked in alcohol just to be sure what is in them.