Gilly's ASE Collection

Wonderful examples!


Very interesting.

And my post-commentary comments:
Again the film is still on the lense of the Limited Edition set so it looks a little wonky. Another one of those years where it's cost vs condition, and I am pretty happy with the set I have as far as limited toning.

This is another one of those just terrible years for the Congrats set, really hard to find in OGP, I really had to give up a lot to get the 2013 and 2014.

I still really like the Annual Uncirculated sets, really cool sets and affordable. I am presently trying to get the 3 years (2009, 10 & 11) of the Presidential dollars where they didn't make these sets so I have the whole run of Uncirculated Presidential dollars.

For the typical stuff I've been mentioning, in case it wasn't mentioned in the article:
2014 Proof was originally issued at $52.95
2014 Uncirculated was $43.95
The 2014 Annual Uncirculated Dollar Coin set cost $44.95 and they made 28,637 sets.
The 2014 Limited Edition Silver Proof set cost $139.95 and this was the last year for the "lense" style OGP. They skipped a year, but when it came back in 2016, the coins were individually encapsulated. In 2014 they made 42,830 sets.
The Congratulations set cost $54.95 and they only made 7,529 sets. Very rare, hard to find.

I'd forgotten all about the making American history set having that 2012 S in it, only those two sets had it, asked you can find those pretty cheap.
Yes, all the missed opportunities the mint has in its history, they could still make those annual Uncirculated sets, not sure how much of a gap there was between the Presidential dollar and the innovation dollars, but they could be doing it right now and for the past several years.
The congrats set especially is pretty boring, I just get it so I have them all. Passion is to have all the sets, but yeah that congrats set, thppppt

The last regular-series issue of Presidential dollars was Reagan in 2016. Then there was the one-off for George H.W. Bush in 2020 when he passed.

The American Innovation Dollar program started in 2018 with the introductory coin, but the 4-coin years didn't start until 2019.

And there's the annual Native American dollar coin.

So, in "fantasy" annual dollar sets we could have had...

2017 - 2 (1 NA, 1 ASE)
2018 - 3 (1 AI, 1 NA, 1 ASE)
2019 - 6 (4 AI, 1 NA, 1 ASE)
2020 - 7 (1 Pres$, 4 AI, 1 NA, 1 ASE)
2021 - 7 (4 AI, 1 NA, 2 ASE)
2022 - 6 (4 AI, 1 NA, 1 ASE)

@Gily: Excellent dedication to the hobby, your collection and to sharing with your fellow collectors! Very nice collection! Thanks very much!

I'll get 2015 posted and maybe have time for the commentary afterwards.
I do enjoy not only sharing the collection, but to also serve as, at least some sort of education on the different sets and how they changed throughout production. I know the different code numbers and stuff might be a bit more than anyone needs. For people with empty OGP it may someday help put Eagles back into the correct boxes, and actually I believe this may happen some day, that people might want them back in boxes. Potentially.
For others that might be contemplating putting a complete OGP set together, all this came after a lot of web searching, etc, so should definitely help them out. Well here is the article. PS I got up to I think 2018 or 2019 then stopped as my work changed a lot and I also had a few decisions to make on how I was going to get a few sets, I can explain that all later.

Well here we are taking on another year. This should be a short job, but big things were on the horizon. 2015. It would be a big job to try doing 15 and 16 together, and 2014 ended up being a lot of writing all by itself, lots of OGP changes.
So, 2015, again everything as far as individual and sets was based off the proof and uncirculated West Point coins.
Not much new on the OGP front, "nearly" a carry over. Only change I see is that if you remember, in 2014, they omitted the words "Certificate Of Authenticity" on the front of the COA on the proof, but it was shown in the Uncirculated, front and back (only on the back of the proof), this was changed (or dare I say "corrected"?) on the 2015 proof.
Codes are ES6 on the proof and ES7 on the Uncirculated. A little different look to the code label between the two, the Uncirculated a little fresher looking.
This marks the last year for the random type of sales codes, in 2016 they switched to the last 2 numbers of the year and a two letter code along with the numbers.
The Congratulations Set also returned, again with the outer sleeve and inner folder both in the matte finish, as they all are going forward.
Now I had thought last year they were trying to go to some code that made sense as they used CS1 in 2014, I had thought Congratulations set was the CS. Made sense that way anyways. Well... the code for 2015 congrats set is....N63. So much for that idea. Again it all changes in 2016 to a system that makes sense, or at least has some continuity year to year.
And finally the Annual Uncirculated Dollar Set.
Nothing really different then the prior few years. Just struck me when looking this over that I never have mentioned the Sacagawea dollar changing every year, but this is an ASE page so I guess the overlook is understandable. Presidents honored are Harry Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, and LBJ.
The missing set this year will sort of tie into next week, 2016.
You can find more professional explanations on why there was no 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set. To sum it up and make a few educated guesses:
There was a delay in issuing the set to begin with. I believe they wanted to transition to what we are familiar with now, with each coin encapsulated separately, instead of one common, sort of like a big slab. To me this is why the early Limited Edition sets tended to tone so badly and I believe the mint had to realized the problem. I'm sure a large percentage of mint employees are hobbyists and knew what was going on. The whole thing is so frustrating to me, as they had the same problem with the 1993 Philly Bicentennial set, but seemed to have learned their lesson when they issued the 10th Anniversary Set.
Anyways.
There was to come the lettered edge 2016 30th Anniversary coins. Evidently, there was some stipulation attached to being able to issue these coins that said that ONLY these lettered edge coins could be issued in 2016 (except for the bullion, which have always had reeded edges).
Ordinarily, if it wasn't for that stipulation, the mint could have issued the 2015 set in 2016, no problem. Wouldn't be a first.
As it was, and as the mint interpreted that stipulation, they decided that they wouldn't be able to issue the Limited Edition set by the end of 2015, so they just dropped the set that year. I think that sums it up pretty well.
They even stopped selling 2015 ASEs as a whole by the middle of December 2015, again they would normally even be selling them into the following year.

Well here is a fun little project I had going on about a year ago, I guess is when I was in the thick of this project. Got it done by early August. I'd work on things then have a roadblock or other projects getting in the way. The story that I'll copy and paste is long enough as it is so I won't expound too much, here it is. I give you the one, the only, 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set:

Well I have been wondering where I was going to start with this little report.
This has been in the works on and off for several months.
Everything just sort of lined up for me in a few ways.
Last week, and earlier this week, I did my report on 2015 and 2016.
I explained how the mint didn't produce a 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set. Several reasons. Mainly the mint was changing the OGP, and didn't think the new style OGP would be ready to go by the end of 2015. Normally no problem, but there was legislation that had to be approved to sell the lettered edge Proof and Uncirculated ASE in 2016. The way the mint interpreted the legislation, they felt they could not sell the 2015 reeded edge ASEs in 2016. So that killed the Limited Edition set in 2015. To abreviate the story.
So some time ago I had the thought it would be cool to make my own 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set. I would sort of think of this as a "fantasy set". Sort of like what Daniel Carr does with coins. But the coins needed do all exist, it's all in the OGP never having been made.
So I sort of had that idea in my head that it was something I could try sometime if the opportunity ever presented itself.
So, it's almost like this was meant to be somehow. I bought my 2016 set off ebay, not knowing the COA was missing. I went as far as to contact the seller to ask if he had the COA and he didn't and offered to take it back.
At that time I really thought of actually doing this. I did a little quick research and decided that I wanted to try this really badly and it might not be all that tough. As long as you assume that a 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set would use the newer style OGP as used in 2016. The only difference then between 2015 and 2016 would be the date on the outer sleeve and the COA. Both changes were a little intimidating, but I knew I could figure this all out. Mainly I told myself it really has to just make me happy with this as I wasn't looking at really fooling anyone with it. Anyone with any really ASE knowledge knows this set was never issued by the mint.
To raise a little extra money I took all the 2016 Limited Edition coins and sold them. I bought an empty 2016W proof box/COA and put that together and sold it, and also the silver quarters, half dollar and dime. I also bought a 2015W proof as well as a 2015 silver proof set. I had put the coins I took out of the 2016 Limited Edition set in aftermarket capsules and retained the special mint capsules and transferred the 2015 silver proof set coins in those capsules, so the coins would all be in the proper mint capsules. The 2015 proof capsule is identical to the ones in the Limited Edition set. So as far as the physical coin set, I had the coins. The next part was the challenge.
I don't have a whole ton of knowledge with Photoshop, things like that, but I have scanned things a lot and have used Microsoft Paint and thought I could figure this out.
I had the COA from the 2015 silver proof set I had bought. I had a 2014 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set with COA, and I did find and buy another 2016 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set with the COA, so I had that all to go with.
So to make a 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set COA I definitely had the material to work with.
I decided the easiest route would be to start with the 2014 COA as the mint director was the same in 2014 and 2015, so that was my starting point. Also the format on the back would be the same by sticking with a COA from another Limited Edition set.
So mainly all I had to modify on the front is changing all the dates to 2015, which were easily copied and pasted from the 2015 silver proof set.
On the reverse of it, let's see, I had the date to change a couple places, and then I had to copy all the info about the quarters in 2015 and plop that into the 2014 reverse.
After that it was juggling around the size on my printer so it would be at least close to the original size.
I did do a bunch of test runs. Surprisingly I never had a problem getting the front and back oriented so everything looks correct when you fold it.
This was probably the longest and most frustrating part for me, this is what I meant by "on and off for months". I could work on it an hour or so and then had to give it a break. Probably more due to my own shortcomings technically. I'm no computer whiz.
Then had to find something more fitting for the paper. Finally found what I needed is called "card stock" and found stuff at Hobby Lobby that isn't quite a perfect match, but very close. At least has the weight and feel of the right stuff.
Took a couple trips to the store to get to the point I was happy with what I was producing. The printing was getting easy, it was yet another process to cut it and fold it properly. Came down to a very flat surface and and old aluminum I-beam level to really get the paper to stay still for both cutting and also using that to fold the paper against. Finally got it close enough. Not perfect by any stretch. The part I'm most dissatisfied with us that wavy gray line, it has like a pixelated look to it, probably from scanning with the resolution set too high, should have actually done it with a low resolution.
The outer sleeve, well I was really tempted to find someone like a calligrapher to do it, someone with some natural artistic talent and a steadier hand.
I did have the early idea that to go from a 6 to a 5, you sort of at least have a start due to the loop at the bottom of the 6. At an early stage I used a knife to scrape the lettering away at the top of the 6. Anything that didn't look like a 5. After debating enough and getting tired of even thinking about it, when I was at Hobby Lobby, I did find a chrome or silver looking Sharpie. I just went through it slowly and carefully. I had looked up the style lettering the mint used (it's called "Crimson"), to get a good idea of the shape the 5 should be and just went from there. A little touch-up here and there with a black Sharpie, going back and forth with the silver, slowly improving it. You can still tell the 6 was there, but it's pretty good looking from a few feet away.
So that's the story, without writing a novel about it.
One big thing is I did ruin one of the mint OGP quarter capsule when trying to put one of the 2015 quarters. They are a little bit of a bugger to get to go back together for me, not like my Guardhouse EvoCores I use on my ASEs. Anyways I was talking to *edited* about it and he had a spare he sent me. He and I just talked about this so much, I also sent him a couple samples of the COAs as I progressed through it.
If the Secret Service finds out and dislikes this, please raise defense funds for me. It's hot in Kansas this time of year.