2017 Silver Dollars - 150th Anniversary

I share the concern and burden. I also collect the 36mm Silver dollars and I store/display them using the Lighthouse tray system. There are 20 coins per tray so the first tray holds from 1971 - 1985 or 14 years... These days, I get only 4 years to a tray... the unlabelled tray will probably fill in 2020 unless 2019 is another like 2017.



For reference, my count is 135 coins in the series including the 2012 38mm Two Loons but excluding all of the 2oz reissue and loon dollars as well as any bullion issues.

These break out as:
1971 - 1980 - Specimen finish only 1 per year
1981 - 1996 - Proof & BU for two per year
1997 saw the introduction of the Special Edition dollars and 1997, 1999 and 2001 had three issues.
By 2002, the new baseline was four issues per year with a combination of Proof, Proof with selective gold plate coloured and special editions.
2006, 2007 & 2008 had five issues
2010, 2012 and 2013 had six issues
and as noted... 2017 was the granddaddy with seven issues.



While the proliferation of Silver Dollars is one thing, as a collector whose OCD requires that I collect them all, it gets expensive when the Selective gold plate coins are only issued in the $200+ Premium proof sets.

@commems

Guilty as charged I do include the 2012 38mm Two Loons in this part of my collection... It has a face value of $1,it fits the tray and I don't really understand why it was 38mm vs. 36mm.

As you can see from the tray labels... I keep other coins in different trays.

While I like the $1 Silver 36mm program as it makes a great historical waypoint, I can honestly say that I don't agree with everything the mint does:
- I think the inclusion of an exact copy of the single issue dollar except for selective gold plating is unwarranted. Only one should be issued. Definitely, requiring a $200+ proof set annually for a single coin is a stretch.
- I didn't like the withdrawal of the BU dollar after 2015. What had it done wrong... It also removed the second single issue standard dollar. Only Standard and Special Editions are individually released now.
- I don't understand the new trend for a painted dollar with a similar but slightly different Reverse image.

2017 was an aberration (I hope)with the number of dollars given the big anniversary... I would like to see a return to 2-3 36mm dollars per year... 1 Proof Single, 1 Special Edition and perhaps a Selective Gold Plate but also available as a single. 2nd and/or 3rd Special Editions should be limited to very special occasions.

I am also concerned that this over-issue trend has infected my other annual vice... the $100 gold. From 1977 through 2014, only one was issued each year. Now we have a special edition with the First Nation designs and a couple of years of cartoon characters. (2015 was the worst with a regular, Looney Tunes and Superman). I would prefer a return to a single issue per year... Use $75 or $150 or a different size to start a new series. I was actually hopeful when the Vancouver Olympic gold coins were valued at $75 face and then the 2013 Superman... but then it degraded to the same situation as the SD in 2014 with multiple issues... none of which are related.