A CCF Brain Teaser-What Year Prior To 1964 Would Have The Most Coins In A Mint Set?

"Major subtype" perhaps is subjective. 1901 comes to mind. Nickel Reverse Type 1 and 2, Dime Reverse Type 2 and 3, Half Dollar Reverse Type 1 and 2, plus Cent, Quarter, Dollar, plus Gold quarter/half/eagle/double eagle. The half dollar reverse types are very minor though and only published in the last year. But with the three mints that's 25 coins. (I think).

1900 saw three Quarter obverses and two reverses, but you can cover them with 3 coins per mint. Known combinations of obv/rev types would be 15 coins just for Quarters across the mints though. The third Quarter obverse is also pretty minor and only published in the last couple years.

1879 might be a more "normal" contender with all 7 gold denominations. Interesting question.

Let's say major subtype = listed in the Red Book. That should narrow it down a bit.

Another date I checked was 1867 as that includes the 2 cent and 3 cent nickel, but 1867 has only 23 coins. 1857 is still winning.
Cent
2 cents
3 Cent Silver
3 Cent Nickel
5 cent nickel (rays/no rays)
10 cents (P/S)
25 cents (P/S)
50 cents (P/S)
1 dollar silver
1 dollar gold
$2.5 gold (P/S)
$3 gold
$5 gold (P/S)
$10 gold (P/S)
$20 gold (P/S)

I'm with the Frog - it's an interesting topic but over my head. I look forward to reading the eventual consensus answer.

Excluding commemoratives, looking at some more descriptions, I'll take an oddball guess of 1908...

Cent (P/S)
Nickel (P)
Dime (P/D/S/O)
Quarter (P/D/S/O)
Half (P/D/S/O)
$2.5 (P)
$5 Liberty (P)
$5 Indian (P/D/S)
$10 no motto (P/D)
$10 motto (P/D/S)
$20 no motto (P/D)
$20 motto (P/D/S)

...OK that's a bit less than I was expecting: only 30 coins total, so it doesn't quite beat 1857.
I had high hopes for 1916 but very little gold that year. 1909 had six different cents instead of just two, but only one gold type per denomination means it comes out to a grand total of 29, even less than 1908.

1873 would be my guess if we include closed/open 3 types. Can anyone find a date that can beat the 39 or 53 coin set?

52 coins (with both closed/open 3 and DDO 1c)
39 coins (without the closed/open 3 varieties or DDO 1c)

1c closed (P)
1c open (P)
1c DDO (P)

1873 3c (closed) (P)
1873 3c (open) (P)

1873 5c shield (P)

1873 5c Half Dime (P, S)

1873 10c arrows (P, S, CC)
1873 10c no arrows, closed 3 (P)
1873 10c no arrows, open 3 (P)
1873 10c no arrows (CC)

1873 25c arrows (P, S, CC)
1873 25c no arrows, closed 3 (P)
1873 25c no arrows, open 3 (P)
1873 25c no arrows (CC)

1873 50c arrows (P, CC, S)
1873 50c no arrows, closed 3 (P)
1873 50c no arrows, open 3 (P)
1873 50c no arrows (CC)

1873 Seated $1 (P, CC, S)

1873 Trade $1 (P, CC, S)

1873 open 3 Gold $1 (P)
1873 closed 3 Gold $1 (P)

1873 open 3 Gold $2.50 (P)
1873 closed 3 Gold $2.50 (P)
1873 Gold $2.50 (S)

1873 closed 3 Gold $3 (P)

1873 closed 3 Gold $5 (P)
1873 open 3 Gold $5 (P)
1873 Gold $5 (S, CC)

1873 Gold $10 (P, S, CC)

1873 open 3 Gold $20 (P, S)
1873 closed 3 Gold $20 (P, S)
1873 Gold $20 (CC)

So out of curiosity, I wanted to see just how much I'd need to spend to assemble such a set in MS65 or the highest grade available below 65 using the 52 coin model.

Using Numismedia FMV, and not including anything over $500k (gotta be reasonable here ), I come up with a little short of $3.1 million to put together that set.

Quite a few coins are well over $50k, several over $100k, a couple over $200k.

The elephant coin is the 1873-CC no arrows 10c at $1.875m, so if you want that in your set, make that new price $4.85 million.

Bad news is, you might have to save up for awhile to put the set together.

Good news is, you'd probably get a pretty warm reception when you (and your personal armored car transport and security guards) took your complete 1873 mint set display to your local coin club's Show and Tell day.

My first thought was 1857 but looks like hfjacinto's got it right.