Mint and proof set coins

COINS MAKE CENTS

I have a silly question....is there an average grade of coins in mint sets and proof sets? I know some coins in mint sets can be baggy or hazy and have in perfections as well as in proof sets. But my question is in a Standart nice looking mint or proof set what are the average grades of the coins?



I ask this because if you look at Red book and coin world for modern individual coins from say 1960 and higher the prices on some are quite high in 65

cladking

"Average" is a tough call, but of course there is an average and it varies widely from the best made to the worst.



The '88-D cent is likely the best penny in mint sets and averages over MS-66 while the '72-D quarter is the best quarter and averages high end MS-64. But there are plenty of dogs in mint sets even of the nicer issues and ugly coins sometimes come nice. Perhaps the ugliest is the '76 type I Ike or the '69-P quarter. The average on these is about MS-62 and that's being charitable because the MS-60's can be just awful.



Coins in mint sets are well struck from good dies under high pressure but they can have lots of retained planchet marking and plenty of scratches. Strikes aren't always full and some dies are left in service a little too long.



Finding Gems in mint sets is like shooting fish in a barrel. There are Gems in rolls but they can be exceedingly difficult to find and they are often poorly struck when you do. The rarest Gem in mint sets has an incidence of about .4% and the most common about 7%. Of course due to market forces and tarnishing these numbers are down now from when the sets were issued.



It appears that pre-'65 mint set coins were just nicer specimens pulled from regular production but this is not certain. Even later mint set issues might not contain any fully struck coins or they can be exceedingly rare like the '69-D FS nickel.



Proofs are better. They are struck twice and earlier ones average PR-66 or PR-67 and later ones (post 1982) average PR-67 or PR-68.



If you can find original sets it's a lot of work and experience required to submit coins for profit. Finding the sets get harder every year as fewer and fewer exist and they get more and more tarnished and cherry-picked. The sets are worth more busted up than intact and this is the only thing that makes the effort economical. The market pays you just a little bit for the rejects.