1998 souvenir set worth big money?

Cuprinkor

Looked at eBay and saw someone offering to sell 1998 P mint souvenir set for $950(!)

Checked sold items and noticed one actually sold for $450.

Hmmm. . . . .

Greenstang

Don’t forget that a seller can ask whatever he wants in the hopes that some unknowledgable
person buys it. If they offer a lower price, he can still sell it and make a profit.
If you want to know the approximate value, look at the SOLD listings . This will give you a
better idea of the value.

cladking

Some of these late date set had miniscule mintages. Indeed, the only common ones are the '87 P& D with mintages over 50,000.

The early and late date sets are tough. The '72 with a mintage of 400 is very easy compared to most of the late date sets.

steve_richardson

@cladking said:
Some of these late date set had miniscule mintages. Indeed, the only common ones are the '87 P& D with mintages over 50,000.

The early and late date sets are tough. The '72 with a mintage of 400 is very easy compared to most of the late date sets.

Fascinating. I’d like to learn more about these… do you know where I can find more info about them? Is there a reference for the mintages that you mentioned? I have a 1991 set I got as a kid when we visited. Never thought there was a collector market for these.

jmlanzaf

@Greenstang said:
Don’t forget that a seller can ask whatever he wants in the hopes that some unknowledgable
person buys it. If they offer a lower price, he can still sell it and make a profit.
If you want to know the approximate value, look at the SOLD listings . This will give you a
better idea of the value.

They sell for $350 to $400 [as the OP pointed out]

1Bufffan

how about the 1983 souvenir sets that they sold at the mints if you visited them in person? I had a blue envelope from the Denver mint.

jmlanzaf

@1Bufffan said:
how about the 1983 souvenir sets that they sold at the mints if you visited them in person? I had a blue envelope from the Denver mint.

40 bucks, more or less

erscolo

The image above is a sample, not the one in my collection.

These souvenir sets were sold at the Denver and Philadelphia gift shops at the mint between 1972 and 1998. I do have many of them. They sold for $4.00 each and no one really knows how many were made, the numbers often quoted are educated guesses and the only basis to go by. The 1972 set was only done at Philadelphia, and the 1975 set had the 1974 dated quarter and half as the Bicentennial issues did not strike until July 1975. I picked one up at Denver in 1983, which, along with the 1982 sets have more value given no uncirculated sets were made in 1982 or 1983 due to budget cuts. Production was small in 1972 and again after 1987, which is regarded as the most prolific year for production.

cladking

@erscolo said:

The image above is a sample, not the one in my collection.

These souvenir sets were sold at the Denver and Philadelphia gift shops at the mint between 1972 and 1998. I do have many of them. They sold for $4.00 each and no one really knows how many were made, the numbers often quoted are educated guesses and the only basis to go by. The 1972 set was only done at Philadelphia, and the 1975 set had the 1974 dated quarter and half as the Bicentennial issues did not strike until July 1975. I picked one up at Denver in 1983, which, along with the 1982 sets have more value given no uncirculated sets were made in 1982 or 1983 due to budget cuts. Production was small in 1972 and again after 1987, which is regarded as the most prolific year for production.

I suspect I'm the source for some of the numbers seen quoted in catalogues and elsewhere. Most of the numbers I use are estimates and I present them as such.

I've been collecting these since back in the '70's and do come up with some "hard and fast" numbers. I can't guarantee their accuracy, of course, but some I've seen in print and this includes the 10,000 mintage for '82-P, 15,000 for '83-P, and 20,000 for both Denvers. Other dates I can get a good feel by their incidence. But these numbers are largely dependent on two assumptions. The first is that the mintage of "400" I 've seen for the '72 is accurate and the second is that a set that shows up ten times as often had about ten times the mintage. There are other collectors who have numbers for some of these later sets I believe from mint records. I don't recall ever seeing any mintages in the '72 to '98 annual reports, however.