1964 SMS coins

Mike31415

would appreciate some info about the 1964 sms coins. Until a few days ago I had no idea they existed!

WANNABEDEALER

From what I have heard 10 sets were made and were sold in an auction a few years ago. I have seen some of the coins and there is no mistaking them for business strikes. They are very distintive.

sinin1

1964 - was a tough period - the government was paranoid people/collectors were hoarding all of the coins minted (as if they were not making money on them)


I am assuming these were shown around congress as an alternative to proof sets -

In 1965/66/67 no mintmarks and silver dropped and no proof sets.

cladking

The mint did a lot of experimenting in 1965 to find a replacement for mint and proof sets.
A date freeze had been put in place to discourage coin collectors so 1964 dated coins were
still in production. It was not widely known that some of this experimentation was done on
1964 issues until the early '90's and that examples had survived. There have been estimates
of from 5 to 20+ sets having been produced, but it would appear the higher number may be
more accurate. A large company offered them and if memory serves suggested they owned
around 11 complete sets and most were intact. These went for "reasonable" money at the
time of around $1000.

The mint also experimented extensively with 1965 and other dates of SMS coins. At least
some of these coins were released in the SMS sets.