2012-S ATB Qtrs ( Circulating Quality )

Here's the thing - right now the #8146 is one year per page, each park has four slots in a row (P, D, S clad proof, S silver proof), and there are five rows on each page. There are some other quarter albums with six rows per page (24 slots), but there isn't room for five slots in a row, and adding a fifth row of four would leave you one slot short. I guess they could add a fifth column, but it's going to look goofy and cramped. It'll also be absent on the first two pages.

And knowing the mint, they're going to go back on this decision in 3 years or something, so there will be this weird section in the middle of your ATB Quarter set where there are three S-mint quarters per park, while the rest of the set has two.

There's also every indication that these will be "circulating quality" which is a different quality/finish than what comes in mint sets. Coins from mint sets are struck at higher pressure, with differently prepared dies and planchets, and the dies are retired sooner. Even though they're not doing satin finish any more, mint set coins still look significantly different from those you'd get from bags or rolls.

So collectors will either have to ignore the S-mint circulating quality quarters, or buy bags or rolls to fill the holes (and spend the rest? share with friends?) and they'll be a mis-match between their mint set P&D quarters. Or they'll have to get those from rolls/bags too. Or they'll have to get both, and have 35 different quarters for every year.

Right now the mint is selling " America the Beautiful Quarters Circulating Coin Set™" and " America the Beautiful Quarters Uncirculated Coin Set™" for both 2010 and 2011. I believe these are two different versions of the coins, not just packaging! The "circulating" set is circulation quality (what you'd find in bags or rolls or at the bank), The "uncirculated" are "...struck on special presses using greater force than circulating coins, producing a sharp, intricately detailed image."

Will people who already bought the "uncirculated" or "circulating" versions of these sets just be screwed when versions with "S" mint coins come out later this year? Will they only be available in rolls and bags?

I DON'T like this. The S mint mark has been only for proof coins for 30 years and now that want to make a couple of non-proof coins to cash in on the "S Mint" brand? There is a reason my people like products from the San Francisco mint, it is because the only strike proof coins.

And then they are going to sell them in 100 coin bags and 40 coin rolls. Who wants 40 coins at a huge mark-up?

I can see why collectors give up on the Mint with these capricious offerings that have no rhyme or reason to them. Next year there might even be West Point minted quarters for XXth anniversary of that facility, in proof format no less. I really hope the US Mint isn't going to way of the RCM and offering 300+ different products per year, making it difficult to distinguish the good stuff from the bad.

Captain has the right idea: my 8146 (and future 8147) P&D slots have/will be filled from Mint sets, so these NCLT SF coins can be conveniently ignored for now since they have been excluded from the Mint sets.

Oh no! You were not supposed to say that aloud!


They were used for the normal mint sets.

Don't like this at all. Seems like they're creating a semi-rarity purely for the sake of creating a semi-rarity. I wish the U.S. Mint would stop the gimmicky baseball card-ization of its coins. The world mints have become a joke with their endless offerings of NCLT coins. It seems ridiculous when the number for intended-for-circulation offerings is far outweighed by the NLCT offerings. The U.S. Mint is on its way there.

I think I'd be slightly less offended if they started doing this in 2010, so that there wasn't S-mint for some years and non-S mints for others. Just like the satin finish for State Quarters, but maybe a little less stupid.

That being said, I'm a completist, so like a sucker I'll be buying these up.

Looks like the first release date is june 21 for el yunque...
I'm definitely getting the feeling that this is a one year deal.

Which is something they used to go out of their way to avoid. Even to the point of publicly saying they wanted to make sure they didn't create a rarity. Now they have discovered they can make money by creating rarities and selling them themselves so now rarities are a good idea.

I just realized...

There are plenty of extra unlabeled holes at the end of the ATB Dansco albums.

I might be getting these after all.