SBA $ Souvenir Mint Set Envelope Differences?

Subman610

As a newbie doing research on Moderns in general (and SBA $ specifically), can anyone tell me the story behind the different styles of SBA PDS Souvenir Mint Set Envelopes for 1979, 1980, & 1981? As I understand it, these mint sets were only available to visitors to the mints themselves, and there appears to be two envelope styles:

1) 1979 Tan, 1980 Blue, and 1981 Green Mint Envelopes; All with three SBA $ images, the year of mintage in large print, and a commemorative card of the same respective color as the envelope.

2) All three years in Green Envelopes, one SBA $ image, year of mintage in small print, and no commemorative card.

Is one set of envelopes more valuable in a collection over the other?

Thanks in advance for the education!

cladking

Supercoin is pretty familiar with these and will probably be along to give a
more complete answer. There are various sets and packaging for the sets
of the last few decades. There is no widespread demand at this time for
the various types of packaging, but many sets do have a premium to the
coins in them.

The '79 SBA souvenir sets is probably the only souvenir set which contains
a variety coin; the Philly comes as a near date in some of these.

Some souvenir sets were available through the mail. At least the regular '82
P&D could be purchased this way. I don't know if this applies to any SBA sets.

supercoin

These are the ones you refer to as (1), and they are the nicest packaging. There is some modest variation in paper coloring to be found.


These are what you refer to as (2), and there are also several variations in printing and coloring for these, although all are basically green with black printing.


Then there are these bad girls which were apparently a special Christmas promotion.


I have a customer who was trying to put together a complete set, I think last I knew he was well over a dozen counting all the years and variations.

MacCoin

I'm sure some one will corect me if I'm wrong, but the way I understand it Souvenir set are business stikes and they were only sold in 82 and 83 from both Philly and Denver. they Didn't have SBAs just a mint medal where the SBA should have gone if the had been minted these years. the color thing I just don't know

cladking

The mints started selling a set of the half dollar and smaller coins over the
counter in the mints' gift shops in 1971 or '72. The '72 sets had mintages well
under 1,000 and the expert on these considers the '71 set unconfirmed. These
have various packaging over the years but typically the Philly sets have a dark
blue envelope and the Denvers have a light blue one. There is a large bronze
mint medal in all of them depicting the mint at which it was made. These medals
also come in different types even within the same year in some cases. The coins
in the early sets are standard issue coins. They are not specially struck and han-
dled as the regular mint set coins are. There was obviously a lot of care in select-
ing superior specimens however. Coins are generally well struck from newer dies
and will often be marked up less than roll coins. The production of these sets was
discontinued after 1998 due to the pressure of state quarter production and relative
lack of interest. It is claimed that the later sets sometimes contain burnished PL ex-
amples of the clads, but I've not seen these.

The '82 and '83 souvenir sets are only notable because there were no regular mint
sets in these years. Of course the SBA souvenir sets ended in 1981 with the SBA.

wingedliberty

I had no idea about the red pack Christmas promotion. I must have missed it.
I learn something new here everyday.

shirohniichan

The Christmas packaging was new to me, too. Thanks for the info, supercoin.

If I ever get back to my love-hate relationship with RCM packaging for Canadian dollars, perhaps I'll follow with all the packaging varieties for US dollars.

keets

hey Sam

i seem to remember going to local auction around 8 months ago and there was a 1964 souvenir set in one of the lots. are you sure they were started in 1971-1972? the set i saw was in a white envelope with printing and contained one example of each coin from each mint.

al h.

shirohniichan

I think I got a Denver Mint Set somewhere around 1980 to 1982 when I visited there. How many souvenier sets were issued when regular mint sets weren't?

cladking

<< <i>

i seem to remember going to local auction around 8 months ago and there was a 1964 souvenir set in one of the lots. are you sure they were started in 1971-1972? the set i saw was in a white envelope with printing and contained one example of each coin from each mint. >>



I own a set that sounds like what you describe. As I remember it has
a cheap plastic or composite "token" in it and the set looks very much
like a souvenir set. There is no evidence that this is a mint product, and
no evidence that any of these exist for the '66-'70 dates.

It could be a prototype but more likely is privately issued.