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 Replies: 26 / Views: 2,195 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4085 Posts |
I'd say the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial releases. I liked the 4 designs, I liked that they produced copper versions for the mint sets, a don the mintage for that year just happened to be historically low. I even went to one of the release ceremonies relatively close by. I dragged the whole family along and we all bought 5 rolls each, then I went back through the line again for another 5 rolls while they explored the park.   |
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Moderator
 United States
187446 Posts |
Fantastic!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
Of course the switch to clad was the big thing but in 1972 I saw an article in the paper that the FED and mint would start rotating their coin stocks. It stood to reason all the coins would begin wearing out evenly so I started collecting the clads and setting a few aside in high grade.
Remarkably, I was so far out of the loop ever since I had begun collecting in 1957 that I didn't know about mint sets until I saw one in a coin shop in 1974. Discovering mint sets was a pretty big deal to me. I realized right away that the coins were superior, too.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Moderator
United States
187446 Posts |
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... I didn't know about mint sets until I saw one in a coin shop in 1974. Discovering mint sets was a pretty big deal to me. I realized right away that the coins were superior, too. Now that is a major event! I always preferred to collect from circulation and only bought mint sets when necessary. The 1973 set for the Ikes immediately comes to mind. The 2009 set for the bronze cents is a more recent example. In 2019 the W cents prompted me to add a mint set subscription. I realized it was getting more difficult to find new coins as cash use became infrequent, so I kept the subscription for 2020 even though the W nickel was canceled. The subscription continues today and keeps my Dansco holes filled.  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6448 Posts |
Surprised that nobody has mentioned the transition of the cent from copper to copper-plated zinc. I remember getting some gleaming new pennies and being quite excited. Over the years my grandfather would bring me shiny new cents every once in a while.
It was only much later that I realized how inferior the zinc cents are to real copper cents. Plating bubbles, zinc rot, scratched plating—they just degrade so much faster than the old copper coins.
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Moderator
United States
187446 Posts |
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Surprised that nobody has mentioned the transition of the cent from copper to copper-plated zinc. I did (second line), but it was vague if you had never seen the "Zincoln" epithet.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
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I always preferred to collect from circulation and only bought mint sets when necessary. Collectors who ignored circulation issues have several major disadvantages with the most important being that with a very few issues the mint set coins are not superior. But also without knowing what goes into circulation it's hard to know what to save or what's scarce. Some issues, as you suggested, don't even appear in mint sets. If you ignored the coins in circulation you wouldn't know well struck pristine 1982-P quarters are virtually nonexistent. Often non-mint set coins can be identified as such and in the long term Gems will have a much higher value than mint set coins. Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
Varieties that appear in mint sets are almost always very common but varieties that appear in circulation issues are rare despite their high mintages.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5177 Posts |
It just occurred to me that we should perhaps distinguish between Numismatic events and Monetary/Fiscal events.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4233 Posts |
My grandfather distributing his coins to his grandchildren when I was 13 was the biggest personal event. He acquired coins from all over the world through working for the Chicago Tribune. Quite a bit of uncirculated Canadian silver from the 1940s, whose value inspired my lifelong interest. I finally had the best ones conserved and slabbed early this year. I also remember going to the LCS a few times with my lawn mowing money and picking up a few BU Franklin halves for $.75-1.50, among a few others. Wish I had done more of that of course, but we didn't have much money. Major numismatic events - I was too young for the switch to clad to have been relevant to me, but I was certainly aware of it a few years later and pulled out every pre-65 coin that went through my hands working at the ice cream parlor. The switch away from silver certificates occurred way earlier, but these could still be found circulating. The bicentennial coins were a big deal - there had never been circulating commemoratives before, and everybody was involved in the bicentennial celebrations. Ike dollars were also a thing, they were actually circulating, and I grabbed them up too. Nothing since has really grabbed my attention all that much. |
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Moderator
United States
187446 Posts |
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Ike dollars were also a thing, they were actually circulating, and I grabbed them up too.  |
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Replies: 26 / Views: 2,195 |
First Page
Posted 10/05/2023 4:05 pm
