early 60's 'mint sets', what MS grade are these usually?

Doogy

I understand the 'Mint sets' (as opposed to the Proof issues) are uncirculated issues packaged at the US Mint. Anyone have a clue as to the range of MS grades these usually contain? Are they worth buying to possibly get some MS65 and up, or are do they seem to be MS62 stuff? thanks, just curious.



Doug

example:

CaptHenway

I would say generally MS-62 stuff.
TD

Doogy

<< <i>I would say generally MS-62 stuff.
TD >>



thats a shame, as I would like to find a few MS65 and up '64 Kennedy and early 60's Franklin halves; oh well, i guess the Mint sets aren't the place to look. thanks!


Doug

GAT

These sets are now over 40 years old and well picked over. Don't fall for the unopened ones on eBay, the vast majority have been resealed after inspection in envelopes which are available on eBay.

cupronik

No free lunches here!. . . . . . sorry

TheRaven

You just have to have a few sets to look thought and try and pick out a few good ones.....

Steve27

While most are low end, MS60-63, you can find better grade coins if you look through enough sets.

MORGANHUNTER2

I don't believe all the sets have been 'cherry picked' yet. There are definitely coins out there that can produce a higher grade than a 60-62- it's all in how you look at them.

I would personally consider going to at least 3-4 coin dealers in a good sized metro area and see what they have. first make friends with them- they may just hand you a few boxes to delve into of mints and proofs(I have been fortunate enought to have been allowed to do just this)- and I have made a 'few' scores so far.

If you have the expendable income to buy say 10-20 sets at a time- this can be a good adventure- hell you could put together a grading set and then work from there!

jdimmick

Most of the sets that you see around in shops, shows are picked over for higher grade coins. Most of these arer ms-60-63 coins at best. However, there continues to be fresh sets that come in from time to time locally, and I assume that its the same for other areas as well. Just yesterday, a guy walked in locally with about a dozen proof & mint sets that were left to him from an estate, he had no idea as to the value, or even what they were. They had not been picked over as I informed him the 79 set was a ty II and worth a bit more than a standard set.

jim

BillJones

In the early 1960s the grades were in the MS-63 ranage. By the 1970s, some sets had coins in them that hardly qualified as Mint State. Back then the mint claimed the coins were "selected" for these sets. They seemed to have been selected from the coins they dropped on the floor after they struck them and then ran over them with track shoes.

There were some really awful coins in the mint sets from the 1970s.

cladking

There was a pretty tight spread in mint set quality coins in the early '60's. Quality
would mostly range from MS-61 to MS-65 with a few outlyers and would average
around 63. Now days there has been some degradation so the average might be
a little lower.

Mint set quality changed dramatically when they were resumed in '68. The mint did
start taking more care with the production of the coins but they were usually still
handled very roughly (if not rougher). Strike pressures were increased and dies
used to strike these were swapped out at the first sign of wear. Average strike
quality of the '68 and later mint sets averages high enough to put them in about
the 98th percentile for most dates. In the early days of moderns this was of critical
importance because strike quality of most coins for circulation was abysmal so fin-
ding gems was extremely difficult in rolls and bags.

While most of the '68 and later mint set coins were banged up, there is a small
percentage each year which escaped damage. In 1971 the average amount of
damage on these coins started increasing and there were increasing numbers of
coins that looked bad. In '77 the damage started to affect a higher percentage of
the coins but there were many fewer coins that are badly beaten up. The '76 Ike
(type I)is so bad that nearly 50% of these can not even be sold as uncirculated!!

The '59-'64 mint sets do contain a few very high grade coins but it's more economical
to look for these in the many BU rolls that were set aside. The later sets are the best
way to look for the gems since they generally will have around 2% gems. There are
almost no rolls of some of the coins in the sets anyway so one has no option.

ABC123

Most ,if not all, of these sets have been "picked over" for the last, at least 30 years. Good luck trying to find any thing higher than MS62

morgannut2

Several family members collected them each year in the late 60's 70's. Out of dozens of sets, they were all MS62/63 banged up garbage. Many people including us stopped buyng from the Mint forever due to their horrible quality. I got better coins at he bank at face.

mirabela

Here and there you can find nice coins in those sets, although I agree w/ previous posters that it doesn't happen often or easily. What you need is ones that have come out of some collection that's been sat on for a long time & hasn't been picked over. I found a couple of really great sets in those felt & plastic aftermarket holders in an antique shop last year. They were selling a whole collection for a widow. Prices were really stupid -- high end of retail for everything. Way too much for the guy's common XF Morgans, but for mint sets with lovely target-toned MS65 & 66 quarters and dimes, and he had a couple, that's kind of a giveaway. Anyway -- that's not what you usually get, but such things do still show up now and then. It takes looking, and luck.

cladking

No one would like to believe nice coins are scarce in these sets more than I but the
simple fact is that they are not. Around 2% of most of the coins in the later date sets
are nice gem or better. This varies dramatically from date to date, mint to mint, and
denomination to denomination. Generally dimes are best then quarters, cents, halfs,
dollars and nickels. In later sets (post-'86) cents are far and away the easiest. Some
coins like the '68-P cent are always damaged and some like the '76 type I dollar are
extremely scarce in gem with fewer than 1 in 500 coins from original, unpicked-over,
being in gem. A few coins (like early '90 Denver clad) may not appear in sets with clean
surfaces, but most of these can be found with patience. Other coins can be extremely
easy to find like gem '72-D quarters. About 6% of these are nice choice gem.

I have to suspect that people are just overlooking the gems or are having extremely
poor luck if they're looking at multiple sets and finding nothing. It's easiest if you take
them out of the envelopes and look at all of one denomination/ mint mark. This way the
gems will just jump out at you and it just takes a little longer to pull them out and put
them back in. You will also have bad luck if you look at dates where gems are scarcer
like the '69, '71, '75, '81 etc.

Most of the best coins made in the modern era went into the mint sets. Those which
didn't go into the mint sets have had near total attrition. This also varies by denomi-
nation and gem Ikes and cents are findable in rolls. Some nickels don't exist with FS
in the sets and might appear in rolls. Few varieties appear in the sets. If you collect
gem modern dimes and quarters there is simply no way to assemble collections than
looking in the sets. Rolls are virtually non-existent and the few available are almost
invariably poor quality.