CoinWeek Article; 1982/3 Souvenir mint sets.

cladking

Great article. Don't know how I missed it.

http://www.coinweek.com/modern-coins/collecting-us-coins-modern-rarities-1982-1983-souvenir-coin-sets/

Crypto

Cool, not my collecting focus but as coinage design drifts with time, my fondness of the coins of my youth such as these grows steadily. I should scope these up

cladking

@Crypto said:
Cool, not my collecting focus but as coinage design drifts with time, my fondness of the coins of my youth such as these grows steadily. I should scope these up

I've been struck recently with how hard it's getting to find eagle reverse quarters in better than XF condition.

Now days a large percentage of the wear comes from counting machines which often leave tiny scratches so even when you find an AU late date eagle reverse quarter it will often be marred by these markings.

If they really do go with the Washington crossing the Delaware reverse in a couple years when the parks quarters are complete it won't be very long until the old clad quarters are tough even in nice XF. They now account for only a little more than 41% of the quarters in circulation and more than half of the early dates are gone entirely.

Ironically the '82 and '83 are among the easier coins from the early '80's/ late '70's to find in nice VF or better.

ECHOES

Cool, thanks for sharing!

ricko

Interesting article ... thanks for the link. Will look for one of the souvenir sets - I like these type things. Cheers, RickO

RogerB

Interesting.

PocketArt

Thanks for posting article cladking. Interesting that the souvenir sets of '82, and '83 have such low mintage's. I bought mine about 5 years ago on eBay as I wanted "something" to fill the gap in my mint set series. They'll definitely stay put in their original US mint packaging. Not sure how stable they'll be in the long run; but, all my coins look fresh without any toning, or, turning. So, time will tell!

I also picked up awhile ago the SBA '81 three dollar set. Along with (2) 1999 SBA sets- one has a very nice PL 1999- D SBA.

Unrelated; but I also bought a Sacagawea, first day of mintage coin with it's shrink wrapped envelop with map, and story printed on envelop. It is a good looking coin!

Who know's, as with older toys, and other collectibles...the packaging may be worth more than the coins someday!

Unknown

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cladking

@AllCoinsRule said:
I've owned 5-10 of each set. I was looking for high grades and never found any. I think I have some partial cut up sets still left and long ago sold any intact sets.

I've seen a lot of these sets. Back in the day I'd pass on them if the dealer wanted more than a couple dollars but I'd pick up any choicer ones I saw. I've never seen a Gem quarter in one other than a few nice '82-D's. For the main part they are a good source for nice well preserved MS-63's but a collector shouldn't expect much more. I know the services grade some of these very high but they are invariably weakly struck but clean specimens. Most of them have nice surfaces but they aren't really Gems if you like good strikes from new dies.

The packaging on these bears watching since the plastic is similar to the regular mint sets and that packaging is highly unstable. Mine are still intact but that might not last. Storing them in safety deposit boxes is messy since the envelopes are so fragile.

Most of the Gems I've seen are, as the article suggests, in the Numismatic News sets, Paul and Judy sets, and the ones in the big manila envelope from the west coast somewhere. These last ones are highly unstable so none will remain in the original packaging.

It's ironic that people thought all moderns would be common because so many were saved and modern packaging was safe. Exactly the opposite has happened in most cases; few were saved and the packaging ruined a lot of coins.