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1982 and 1983 Mint Sets
bigmarty58
Posts: 2,001 ✭✭✭✭✭
The mint did not issue regular mint sets(10 coin, 5 for each mint branch)for these two years but did sell Souvenir Mint Sets (5 coin one branch) at each branch mint, Philadelphia and Denver. When/why did the Mint decide to do this type of procedure beginning in 1982 and then go back to the normal 10 coin Mint Set issues in 1984? And other than Ebay, where would one find these Souvenir Mint Sets for sale?
Thank you for the help,
Robert.
Thank you for the help,
Robert.
Enthusiastic collector of British pre-decimal and Canadian decimal circulation coins.
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Since official US Mint Sets were not available in 1982 and 1983 AND the fact that OBW rolls are generally NOT available, a lot of collectors turn to these souvenier sets for good examples of uncirculated coinage.
Availability is common on eBay however you can also run across these at coin shops.
The prices for the 1983 sets can be very intimidating though.
The name is LEE!
There are 1972 souvenir sets and rumors that there are '71's. The mintage
of both the '72 sets has been reported at "400". Every year exists from '72
to '98 when they were discontinued because of tactical issues with the new
states quarters. High water mark was easily 1987 when nearly 100,000 were
made when people found they could obtain the half dollars from no other source
for a brief time before the mint set was issued.
The sets were made in batches so there will be little difference within years some-
times.
These coins are not mint set quality though and are just better coins plucked off
the production lines.
There was one difference though; the '82 and '83 sets were available mail order!
This was very poorly reported for some reason and very few hobbyists were a-
ware of it. Quality of some of the coins in these two sets is terrible. The '82-P
quarter may be the worst. Only a few choice specimens are available and I doubt
there are any gems.
Mintages have been reported as 10,000 for the '82-P, 15,000 for the '83-P and
20,000 for both the Denvers.
The late date sets are very rarely seen.
I mearly attempt to repeat what I have heard from you in the past.
As for the mail order availability of the 82 and 83 souvenier sets, that is most interesting! Do you have any details on "how" these were processed? Obviously not from the regular channels.
The name is LEE!
1982
1983
Keep in mind that the above sales sometimes represent either the Philadelphia Set or the Denver Set. Occasionally the entire set comes up. Also, keep in mind that not all sets offered as "Souvenir Sets" are in fact Official US Mint Souvenir Sets because once the collecting world realized that there would be no US Mint Sets for 1982 and 1983, they quickly assembled their own "private" sets.
Official US Mint Souvenier Sets always have a dollar sized copper medal representing the Mint within the packaging.
Anything else, regardless of packaging is not an official US Mint Product.
The name is LEE!
While the sets had been around for a while, it took something to stop the regular sets to make the special sets noticable!
<< <i>
As for the mail order availability of the 82 and 83 souvenier sets, that is most interesting! Do you have any details on "how" these were processed? Obviously not from the regular channels. >>
I have it here somewhere but it's something I haven't committed to memeory.
I'll see if I can dig it up later.
<< <i>...Krause publications also had their own "year" sets during this time. I was able to obtain these sets and the coins are of a better quality than the mint's souvenir issues. >>
Almost every gem '82-P quarter I've seen originated in one of these sets.
The attrition on these was probably staggering and half these sets didn't
even survive a year. Most people would have just spent the coins to get
rid of them.
It looks like they put some real effort into finding nice coins for these sets.
The P-mints were all "washed" at the mint and have a most unnatural (drab & very unappealing)
appearance. The D-mints sometimes come with adequate brilliant luster but the coins display the
usual contact marks.
Best bet for slab candiates come from Krause sets as well as those assembled and sold by Paul & Judy's
Coins (Illinois dealers.)
This is my experience with '82 & '83 sets.
Robert.
In the Summer of 1981 I was an authenticator at ANACS, and as part of the ANA Summer Seminar back then we got a floor tour of the Denver Mint. I had my class down in the basement of the Mint where they were packaging the D&S packet, and wandered over into a small room off of the packaging area.
In it was a large stainless steel tank with a lid on it, and over in the corner a hand-cranked cement mixer! Next to it was a stack of 100-pound bags of dried, crushed corn cobs. I casually asked our tour guide what these were for, and he explained that up on the press floor they sprayed a light machine oil on the planchets to make them slide through the feed mechanism easier.
However, if they left the oil on the struck coins they would discolor in the packets (look at the sets from the early 70s), so they cleaned the coins before packaging them. They would dump a bag of coins in a wire basket, shake it up and down in the steel tank of liquid freon, and then throw them in the cement mixer with a few scoops of the dried corncob. A quick tumble would dry them, and then they went on to the packaging area. Note how the mint set coins in the years just before and up to 1981 look beat to he77.
I wrote about this somewhere, and there was a bit of an uproar. The mint discontinued mint sets in 1982 and 1983, and I have no idea if it was because of my writing. However, if it wasn't, it was a heck of a coincidence.
TD
<< <i>I take the blame for there being no Mint Sets in 1982 and 1983.
In the Summer of 1981 I was an authenticator at ANACS, and as part of the ANA Summer Seminar back then we got a floor tour of the Denver Mint. I had my class down in the basement of the Mint where they were packaging the D&S packet, and wandered over into a small room off of the packaging area.
In it was a large stainless steel tank with a lid on it, and over in the corner a hand-cranked cement mixer! Next to it was a stack of 100-pound bags of dried, crushed corn cobs. I casually asked our tour guide what these were for, and he explained that up on the press floor they sprayed a light machine oil on the planchets to make them slide through the feed mechanism easier.
However, if they left the oil on the struck coins they would discolor in the packets (look at the sets from the early 70s), so they cleaned the coins before packaging them. They would dump a bag of coins in a wire basket, shake it up and down in the steel tank of liquid freon, and then throw them in the cement mixer with a few scoops of the dried corncob. A quick tumble would dry them, and then they went on to the packaging area. Note how the mint set coins in the years just before and up to 1981 look beat to he77.
I wrote about this somewhere, and there was a bit of an uproar. The mint discontinued mint sets in 1982 and 1983, and I have no idea if it was because of my writing. However, if it wasn't, it was a heck of a coincidence.
>>
The first time I heard this story was in the October, 2000 issue of
Coinage magaazine in an article by Kari Stone. It was "The Mint's
Secret Coins (the Best Collecting Specimens) on pg 19.
Getting any sort of information out of the mint about mint sets has
been almost impossible over the years and most of the information
is stuff you just have to figutre out for yourself. Stone with Tom De
Lorey's help actually put together a very factual and enlightening
article that never seemed to get the kind of attention it deserved.
There were a few things I hadn't known and had never seen printed
elsewhere.
The mint no longer has so many secrets about mint set coinage but
collectors still seem to be overlooking these coins.
There are a lot of oddball facts like CaptHenway's which all seem to
tie together to suggest that the mint simply misjudged public atti-
tudes and the root demand for these sets. Much of it most probably
was intentional to some degree.
It seems odd that after so many years most people are still missing
the point and the mint doesn't much care any longer because they can
fall back on tens of millions of states quarter collectors.
<< <i>You're not going to find any singles worth slabbing from the gov't. souvenir sets of 1982 & 1983.
The P-mints were all "washed" at the mint and have a most unnatural (drab & very unappealing)
appearance. The D-mints sometimes come with adequate brilliant luster but the coins display the
usual contact marks.
Best bet for slab candiates come from Krause sets as well as those assembled and sold by Paul & Judy's
Coins (Illinois dealers.)
This is my experience with '82 & '83 sets. >>
There's a low mintage set in a manilla envelope and a large flat
high PVC holder out of California that's a good source for some
of the nickels and the '82-P quarter.
There's another higher mintage set out of CA (I beleve) with a
white envelope and large statue of liberty tokens with some
nicer coins.
There are some nice '83-P and very nice '83-D quarters in the sou-
venir sets but they tend to have some marking.
Finding nice choice coins of this date is just tough. Even the dimes
will usually be harder than people expect. I heartell the cents are
easy enough but you couldn't prove it by me.
Expect to pay $75-$80 for the P set, both sets $125-$200, roughly.
I saw a 83P quarter in a PCGS 66 holder, go for $600.
I had a chance to buy a OBW roll of 83Ps for $500, passed on it.
I do save all my 83P quarters, silly huh?
Scott
<< <i>I had always heard that the elimination of uncirculated mint sets for 1982 and 1983 were the result of government budget cutting, but I don't know how true that is. I do know that they were not included in the Mint's annual budget for those two years. Collector demand forced the Mint to resume the sets in 1984.
This was reported in the coin papers but note that the proof
set wasn't affected and that this was the very year that mod-
ern commems made a comeback.
There may well have been a host of reasons but it's improbable
that budget cutting was sufficient cause. This program was pay-
ing for itself.
Another thing that might be noted is that the mint was raising
prices almost every year in an apparent effort to reduce demand.
It's possible this was also simply an attempt to maximize profit
but this is an unusual arena to be looking for "budget cuts".
The mint appeared to value these sets far more than the general
public who primarily purchased them because they were there or
because there was a specific coin in them they desired. It was
a big blow to very few people when these were discontinued.
I didn't see any long lines at the banks when I'd go for rolls and
bags, but then, I never had. I talked to the vault manager of a
major bank and he told me he had never heard of anyone sav-
ing clad coins. He said he even talked to his buddies in Chicago
and they hadn't heard of it either. There were only a couple hob-
by sources for rolls in thise days and they got their coins from
just a pair of banks; sometimes just a single bag!!!
There was no wailing and gnashing of teeth in the hobby either.
Oh I saw a couple people walk out of coin shops dejectedly when
told there were no new mint sets but there weren't dozens of let-
ters to the editor or something like that.
I didn't expect them to come back since the private concerns were
doing a reasonably good job. The coins were junk since they were
not mint set standard but almost no one cared.