Further Analysis Of The 1976-S Unc. Set

Thanks, I enjoyed reading your article. I found my first '76 silver "unc" half while coin roll hunting last week. I also have a set that was given to me as a Christmas tip for passing a collector's newspaper back in 1975. I think this is when I decided I was going to start collecting.

That three coin set is perfect for a 7070 set.

jbuck- would flip of a coin work as a book, you think?

Almost started a new thread. I've got to try to keep up better with CoinWeek.

It's a very good article and I enjoyed it as usual. You touch on the subject of the sets with the white stripe.

Near the end of the production run the mint came to believe that the authorizing act mandated 14,000,000 sets rather than set a cap at that level. With only a few weeks to make over 8,000,000 sets they started running the coins off of regular dies and regular presses rather than the much slower numismatic presses. These newest coins were very poorly made and they lacked the packaging to make up the sets so they were simply dumped into 55 gallon steel drums. Sometime after sales fell off in 1977 these were allthey had and they continued on sale until 1980 but had very poor sales due to lack of interest and poor quality. These used new packaging without the white stripe. Many of these went almost straight to the melting furnaces in 1980 as there was actually a very narrow window of opportunity to buy them in bulk at less than melt value. The mint just wasn't paying attention until the orders came pouring in. Over the years they are far more likely to be destroyed and are not commonly seen any longer yet still shunned because of the low quality and poor strikes.

While enormous numbers of these poorer sets were made it's possible as few as about 20,000 survive. They just might be considered part of the sets someday.

All these S-mint 40% silver Uncs are easy to find nice except the "high speed" examples that simply never come nice. You can find them without a lot of scratches with great effort but you'll never find one well struck and with good surfaces. Most of them are simply horrid and the few that aren't horrid are bad.

The red envelope sets can have the stripe. I just madehttp://images.pcgs.com/CoinFacts/26824460_max.jpg and http://images.pcgs.com/CoinFacts/26824461_max.jpg from one pack.

I picked up a original set at a pawn shop for $15 about 6 mths ago. No white stripe.on the bottom, so I guess its a unc set. Never knew there was a difference. Thanks for the article, very informative. I always wondered why the coins didn't look as great as other proofs. Now I know.