1965 Coins - The setsThis will only be discussed quite briefly. Pages 3 and 4 of this thread discuss the process and reasoning well, but I will rehash some of this data for your covenience.
Most of the information is rehashed from Robert Peppings book - NZ History Coined, sets and coins all my own!
Set packaging, heavy cardboard folders made in NZ.
Basically 200,000 sets of 1965 dated coins were made as souvenirs for the end of the Decimal series. Despite being issued in November 1966, the coins were all dated 1965. They were feted as early as May 1965 and people were to subscribe to the Reserve Bank to buy them. The initial proposal was for 5 to 7k Proof sets, 20k Proof like and the balance as standard uncirculated sets. But due to time constraints on the mint (Minting decimal coins for Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa and several other clients, along with British and Irish coins and also the movement across to the new mint at Llantrisant in Wales) they could not do proofs.
Blue (Prooflike) and Green (Selected) sets.
The compromise was "Prooflike sets" these were a high quality finish, double struck and polished surfaces with a right angled rim, but no cameoing and the packaging in pliofilm supplied by the mint and the cardboard surround from NZ was similar to the cheaper sets. 25k of these sets were minted and 500 were put aside as "Ballot" sets in cases which are much rare, but still the same grade of coin inside. The quality of these was superb, and some coins may be proof quality - but overall these were not proof coins - just specimens. Still owning these coins is a pleasure!
The Specimen sets were sold out before they came here and none were placed on sale, but were sent to subscribers in November 1966.
The grades of 1965 set coins.
Now this image I showed a while ago - let me explain it. Many of these sets were stored poorly and the pliofilm degraded over time. I brought a green and blue set in February and both had damaged packaging, so I decided to remove the coins and place them in flips. I already I had a pink set opened and thus this explains the picture.
These show florins of each grade, at left is the Pink Uncirculated coin, which is the same as circulating coins, struck once with used dies (Notice my halfcrown in the 1965 has a weak detail in the centre) and left to fall in the hoppers, so you get the dings and marks expected. However the coin is still uncirculated.
The middle coin is a Selected coin (Green set) and this is also a standard coin, but it was taken off the belt and not allowed to fall in the bucket. Also the dies for these coins were fresh and thus the detail is much better in this grade. You can see even in my bad photo, the coin is much shinier and sharper than the one at left, but it is not as nice as the coin on the right!
The coin on the right is the Specimen Prooflike one (Blue) notice the full sharp lustre (even more in real life), ultrasharp detail and extremely high quality mirrored fields.
The complete set of Green coins, noticed the shinier coins, but still slightly tarnished bronze.
And the blue set, lustre for miles and flawless bronze.
The ballot sets are rare, but given the coins are same quality as the blue sets and all you are paying $300 or $400 for is a likely to be corroded red case and a card listing the coins seems a poor investment.
Sets of all types are available now and the blue ones should only cost around $30 down to $10 for a pink one. Sadly many are sold incomplete with the Halfcrown and Penny missing or just the Halfcrown and Penny by themselves.
There is still plenty of stock, as many people who brought them ended up passing away recently and their holdings have entered the market.
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Posted 03/04/2022 06:54 am
