Early proof coins

dan1ecu

Do I understand correctly that individual proof coins (as opposed to proof sets) were ordered directly from the mint in the 1800's? There were 4290 proof 3C nickels minted in 1886. Were there really that many people back then that ordered proof coins, or did the mint make a certain number hoping to sell them? Does anyone know what the mint packaging was like back then? And who thought up the idea of making proof coins, anyway? Was it the collectors themselves, or was it the mint’s way of trying to make a profit?

Dan

BillJones

From what I have read individual Proof coins were only sold during the period from 1936 to 1942. The reason was the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt was a stamp collector, and he thought that it would be a good idea if as many collectors as possible to buy Proof coins to get rid of the depression blues. Therefore he allowed the sale of individual coins so than more people could afford at least one piece.

19th century sets were sold in three parts. One could buy the minor coins (cent, two cent and three cents as a group), the silver coins and the gold coins. An interesting by-product of this was that the some coins had very high Proof mintages were due to repeated orders when the type coins changed. For example the Proof mintage of 1909 nickels is very high because collectors kept going back to buy Indian cents, VDB Lincoln cents and plain Lincoln cents.

Conder101

No Bill, there was a brief period when the mint would only accept orders by sets with the breakdown you mention (And they had to be paid for in gold for the silver and gold sets.) but for much of the 19th century you could buy the coins individually. A silver dollar cost $1.08 One dollar for the coin and eight cents surcharge for the "proofing".

leothelyon

From what I have read individual Proof coins were only sold during the period from 1936 to 1942.

Finally, the mystery has been solved. This is probably what has happened to all the cameo's for those years. They're sitting in granny's closet inside of old hat boxes. LOL

Leo

BillJones

I won't stand corrected on the issue of how earlier Proof coins were sold. My information came from Walter Breen's book on Proof coins and is supported by the mintage figures. If you look at the silver coin mintages for the second half of the 19th century and the Barber series, you will note that the numbers are the same for each denomination. The same is true for the Proof cents and nickels. That evidence does not support the assertion coins were only sold as sets for a brief period of time. It would seem that the policy was in place for many years.

The mintages do vary for the gold coins, which would indicate that at some of those pieces were sold as singles.

BillJones

I think that there were few if any cameos from the 1936 to 1942 period. The reason is that mint caught a lot of flack for the dull or satin finished Proofs that were issued early in 1936. As a result they went crazy polishing to dies down to the point where they polished off Wieman's initials on some 1941 half dollars.

I've also seen more than few Proof 1942 Lincoln cents with Lincoln's bow tie flying in midair because of excessive polishing.