Coins Not Included In Modern Mint Sets

Initially, they were Postage Currency, which was essentially a paper money equivalent of stamps, complete with pix of the stamps of their face value.

If you change your mind about going back on proofs, you might consider 1959 (all the LMC) or 1955 (first year of the new packaging for proof sets, similar to mint sets).

Some 55 and the earlier years come in boxes. The next logical stop is 1950 (fairly expensive) because before that, it jumps to 1942, and they were all sold as singles back then.

Rewster - I've been going back over the comments and saw this one. Now that I'm further along in the process I see how good of a question this is!

If I understand correctly, here are the 1982 pennies:

1982 Cu alloy Large Date
1982 Cu alloy Small Date
1982D Cu Alloy
1982S Cu Alloy Proof
1982 Copper-plated Zinc Large date
1982 Copper-plated Zinc Small date
1982D Copper-plated Zinc Large date
1982D Copper-plated Zinc Small date

As of now I am leaning toward INCLUDING the large/small dates but not the metal composition differences. That may change as I learn more.

It started with the '99 mint and proof sets. I bought those from the mint and then bought every year. I also had a penny collection from when I was a kid that ended around '65. I was looking at that accumulation of sets in their boxes and pretty much drew the same conclusion you did. I'm much more involved in stamp collecting and have a very nicely ordered and accessible collection in about 16 binders. I offhandedly complained to a stamp collecting friend on the BidStart forums that I wished there were albums for the intact mint sets. As a stamp collector I am used to collecting by year, not by denomination. My friend didn't collect coins, but his son did, and his son told me about Eagle albums. They hold intact mint and proof sets! I took all of the sets out of the envelopes and boxes and placed them in the albums. I also picked up the '68 to '98 P&D series (including '82 and '83 P&D Souvenir sets). Now I can view any year at any time, easily. Best of all, the sets will be easy to dispose of when the time comes.

I put the envelopes and boxes in a big zip lock bag with a silicone gel pack and stuck the bag in a closet.

When trying to decide when to stop collecting just pennies and start collecting mint sets, the end of the wheat era seemed logical. I decided to start collecting proofs when the mint mark changed to S ('68). So I plan to include the '59 through '64 P&D sets, plus the '65 through '67 Special Mint Sets. I've already added the '99 SBA P&D and sealed up 4 Ikes in saflips since '71 and '72 P&D are missing the Ikes. I haven't gotten the '68 to '98 proof sets yet, but it looks like I will need the '71 and '72 Brown Ikes, too, to have a complete mint mark set of everything.

Then I started looking at some of the type varieties I'm missing out on, like the '76 Ike Type 1 and Type 2, and the '82 penny varieties shown above. I want to include SOME of those things, for sure. I haven't decided what to do yet, but I plan to collect those circulated to keep the costs down. I actually won a clad '76 type 2 in a contest here so I may have to figure things out sooner than I had planned! I might use a Dansco binder with some blank pages to keep type varieties of the few varieties I decide to collect. Or I might use 2x2's. I really don't know, yet. I also have some errors I'd like to display some way, so the 2x2 answer may be the best way. I moved my wheats to a Dansco album. I may decide to add Indian cents as well. That's also undecided. I'm really just getting started. I've gotten LOTS of great advice here, though!