U.S. Mint Begins Selling New Uncirculated Sets

The U.S. Mint began taking orders on Tuesday, Oct. 9 for the 2007 Uncirculated Mint Sets. These sets are "new" because the Mint has completely redesigned the packaging they come in so that the edges of the Presidential Dollars can be seen more easily. This set is definitely one of the better investments among the various coin sets the U.S. Mint sells, for the following reasons:

• You get 28 specially-struck coins for $22.95; that's less than $1.00 per coin!



• The face value-to-cost ratio is the highest of all Mint sets. The face value of these sets is $13.32, so the surcharge, including the nifty little folders they come in, is only $9.63.



• This set includes several "key coins" for the year. Because these "Uncirculated" coins are actually struck differently at higher pressure than normal coins, plus they have a special "satin finish," they aren't just another "Uncirculated" coin in the normal sense.

I really wish the Mint would use a term other than "Uncirculated" to describe these coins. The term "Uncirculated" has been in usage in the coin collecting hobby for decades to denote a normal business strike (circulation quality) coin grade that doesn't show any signs of wear. Since 2005, the U.S. Mint has, perhaps thoughtlessly, re-appropriated this term to describe a new type of finish, the "satin finish." I wish the Mint would stop furthering confusion in the hobby by continuing to use the "Uncirculated" term to mean a finish type rather than a grade of coin. There are plenty of other hobby-recognized terms for coins that are issued by a governing authority but that don't fall into the Proof or Business Strike categories. Essai and Piefort come immediately to mind, but the best choice for the U.S. Mint's "Uncirculated" coin sets might be "Specimen" sets. Even if they just called them "Satin Finish sets" I think it would clear up a lot of confusion.

On the subject of annual key coins, among all of the various Mint Set options that the U.S. Mint makes available each year, there is only one way to get two of the coins that are proving to be rather popular and with relatively low mintages for a modern coin: the silver Dime and the silver Half Dollar which are found only in the U.S. Mint Silver Proof sets! If someone wants to complete the set of dimes or half dollars, the silver Proof version of these two coins is the hardest to get, with mintages often below 1 million.

Pay particular attention to the special sets offered by the Mint! The most recent example of a special Mint set skyrocketing in value is the 20th Anniversary Silver and Gold Eagle sets. The Reverse Proof coin in both sets could only be obtained by buying the limited edition 20th Anniversary sets, and as I write this, the Reverse Proof coins alone are worth four times as much as what the entire set cost when the Mint sold them about a year ago!

Another thing to be on the lookout for, when shopping at the U.S. Mint, is sets that have duplicate coin offerings. The Mint is pretty smart about how they market these things, and their marketing system is quick to take advantage of the unwary buyer. For example, on June 21, 2007, the Mint put the Presidential Dollar 4-coin Proof sets on sale for $14.95. The sets came in a nice multicolored box with related artwork on it, and I think most people were pretty happy with them. At least, they were happy until July 19 when the Mint put the full Proof sets up for sale for $26.95. The Presidential Proof sets (in the same box) were being included as part of the overall year Proof set. There wasn't an option to buy the non-Presidential Dollar coins in a separate set, so if you had already bought the 4-coin Presidential set, you got stuck with another one to get the rest of the year's Proof coins. The same thing happens with the Statehood Quarters. The Mint releases the Statehood Quarters Proof set (and Silver Quarters Proof set) early in the year, and then includes the same coins, in the same packaging, in the full-year-set-of-coins sets later in the year. If you really just want one set of each, look over all of the options before you buy! The Mint maintains a page that lists the upcoming products and their expected release dates on their Web site under "Product Schedule."

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Photo courtesy of the United States Mint