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Why did the US switch production of Proof Coins to San Francisco in 1968?
lsica
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Just curious if anyone knows this - Why did the US switch production of Proof Coins to San Francisco in 1968 after 150 years (off and on) in Philadelphia?
Philately will get you nowhere....
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Philadelphia and Denver were still very busy producing clad coins to replace the silver coins that were disappearing from circulation.
I remember how those sets were touted as the second coming.
San Francsico started in 1965 with Special Mint Sets, their first year after reopening that Mint.
Bingo. Because of the coin shortage in 1964, regular proof sets were suspended and 1965-1967 SMS sets were made at San Francisco so Philly and Denver could focus on regular coinage.
I assume when proofs resumed in 1968, it was a more seamless transition to continue to make them at SF.
The coinage presses for proofs were shipped to SF and used to strike SMS.
New Philly Mint was being planned around this time. Was considerable Congressional testimony about layout, space requirements--potential ability to meet future coin shortage.
San Fran had excess space so when decision was made to restart proof coinage, it was shifted to the West Coast.
The U.S. switched Proof coin production to the San Francisco Mint in 1968 to consolidate and modernize operations after closing the Philadelphia Mint's Proof coin facility. San Francisco had newer equipment and was already producing Special Mint Sets, making it better suited for Proof production going forward.
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Adams' Congressional testimony:
The San Francisco Mint, with the “S” mint mark had an exotic ring to it. I heard collectors use the term “branch mint Proof” which was a big deal prior to 1968. I think the big reason was the Philadelphia Mint was most concerned about keeping up production and avoiding another coin shortage.
When Fred Weinberg offered me this about a decade ago I recognized it was from year one of San Francsico Mint re-opening in 1965.
Seemed historically significant to me, so I bought it.
Remains unique for date & earliest date known for this type of mint error.
SMS 1965 10c on SMS 25c glittery finish planchet.
How did that dime not break the press??
Also I did not know about about the Philadelphia Mint changing buildings. That puts a new perspective on the lower mintages for 1969 dimes and quarters and the total lack of P-Mint 40% halves.
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I've been looking through several 1969 unsearched, sealed mint sets. Golly, no Full Steps or Full Bands and lots of scratches. It's easier to wait for a graded MS67 to show up at auction somewhere. The sets look like they were pushing out volume without quality control. Proof sets are tough for PR70DCAM, none. PR69DCAM are the highest grades for some.
Maybe teething pains with new automation?:
In 10,000 of these sets as they rolled out of the mint you probably wouldn't find a single FS either mint mark. There would be only several hundred nice Gem philly quarters and three thousand chBU. The remarkable thing though is how much easier it was to find nice coins in mint sets than it was in rolls. Very few $1000 bags of '69 quarters had even a single well made coin with minimal marking. Most coins had several strike deficiencies AND excessive marking. Clean coins were available but they still were struck poorly by worn and poorly made dies. Most mint set coins are poorly made by new dies before being scratched.
Now days most of the mint sets are gone because there has never been much demand. The surviving mint sets invariably have lots of tarnished coins and most have only tarnished coins. Usually this tarnish can be removed but the longer it stays on the less likely it can.
Some mint set coins continued to be made on the old equipment for proof sets after the SMS issues. They took a great deal more care making the mint set coins which is why finding nice Gems in them is like shooting fish in a barrel. Fully 3% of the Denver quarters in these sets were true Gem. Gem Philly cents and Denver dimes were common as well. As a rule about 2% of mint set coins were Gem but this number varied wildly dependent on the specific issue.
For many practical purposes modern mint sets are SMS.
The mint sets the mints issued in the 1970s were terrible. The coins looked like they had been dumped on the mint's floor, trampled and then put in the soft plastic.
Yes, exactly. Almost all the coins that didn't look like roadkill were very mediocre. This may have discouraged even more collectors than the even worse quality of the '65 to '67 circulation issues. You'd spend a big premium for quality and you'd be lucky if there were a single Gem in a 12 coin set. If there were, and this happened with only two sets out of three, it would usually be a penny or dime. Finding nice halfs and dollars was far more difficult.
Since people didn't collect these coins it wasn't generally known that coins issued for circulation were even worse. Not only were they banged up about the same but they were poorly struck by worn dies. Finding original clad rolls from the '70's is quite difficult but, then, why even look unless you wanted varieties.
I collected mint sets for years and years and never even glanced at the ike dollars because I didn't believe there were any Gems at all. I didn't find my first Gem ikes until 1979! When I started looking I started finding a few but very few. Except for some '73 and '74 sets they're all tarnished now. In just a few more years most won't even be able to be restored. They need to come out of the plastic and soaked in acetone before it's too late.
Do a search for the words “cement mixer” and see my post about how the Denver Mint cleaned Mint Set coins up until 1981.
San Fran SMS Off Center strike from second year of (S) Mint reopening:
SMS 1966 50c Off Center on 40% silver planchet
@cladking here's a recent 1969 mint set I purchased. The set was sealed. An example of the quality control.
Nice clean well made '69-S cents were tough even back when all the coins were still pristine. About 1% would grade what I call MS-65 (Gem). The major problem was they were banged up but there were also retained planchet marking and poor strikes. Now 75%+ of the mint sets are gone and virtually every single coin is tarnished and/ or spotted. And this is one of the cents that don't clean up well in acetone quite often.
Sure you can find rolls but many of these will be tarnished and most of them are poorly made.
The irony is nobody collects moderns because they think they are too common. But I'd ask when was the last time you saw a '69-S penny in circulation. Odds are good it's been over a quarter century and it was a banged up mess.
The high mintages of mint sets after 1964 and their sometimes great quality also served to discourage collecting them because they were thought of as "common". Some of the Gems weren't all that common in 1965 and they are a great deal less common today.
1965-S, 1966-S and 1967-S all denominations! Ok, got it!
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
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