1976 bicentennial silver sets question

EbolaGumbo

In 1976 there were 11,000,000 3 peice silver sets that were produced and sold until 1982 by the mint. How many of these sets were sold and what was done with those that didn't sell?

cladking

They sold around 4 million of these according to the mint. Apparently about 3.8 million
were made before July of 1976 and placed into pliofilm with a white stripe on one side.
About this time the mint came to believe that the authorizing legislation demanded that
11 million be produced rather than allowed up to 11 million. Over a brief period in July
of '76 the mint ran off about 7 million of each of the three coins on high speed presses.
There was care taken to do a good job with these and the dies were swapped out at
the first sign of wear but the coins are just awful. They were put into 55 gallon drums
and placed into storage. Apparently these drums were rolled at some point since the
coins are covered in small scratches. When the supplies of the white stripe sets ran out
in the late '70's the drum coins were put into pliofilm with no stripe on them. These were
then sold until about 1982 when they were all removed from sale and melted.

The high speed coins are a distinct variety though they are quite unattractive. Judging
by the percentage of the "regular mint set quality" coins to the "high speed coins, the min-
tage (sales) appears to be in the 150,000 vicinity.

Gemineye

Jimmy Dresell on the coin show is selling the rest of em..................