Quote:
Oh, wait! Are you talking about in the world? I was talking about in the U.S. By the way, the pictures of proof sets I have seen have them encapsulated in a plastic bar with a sheet of paper inside telling you the names of the coins.
I was talking about
US coins. If you include the world proofs then you jump back into the 1600's.
A very brief history of US proof coins.
The first US proofs appeared in 1817 but between then and the 1830's proof coins were hit or miss with not all coins being made each year. The first full proof sets appeared in 1834 with the diplomatic presentation sets for the King of Siam and the Muscat of Oman. By the 1840's most coins exist in proof for most years, but the mint didn't really offer them for sale, basically you had to know someone in order to be able to get them.
In 1858 for the first time the mint openly offered proof coins to the public without the requests having to come from a "somebody". But the coins were still sold as individual coins, not sets. As I mentioned, several years later orders came down to sell the proofs as sets only. The problem was that most collectors only collected one or two denominations and could not justify or afford to buy a full set just for the one or two coins they wanted. So after a few years they went back to selling individual coins. (In the 1880's the mint did offer the minor coins as a set at a cost of 18 cents) This selling of the individual coin continued until the mint stopped selling proofs in 1916.
When they once again began making proof coins for collectors in 1936 they once again sold them as individual coins, and they continued doing that until they stopped proof coin production once again in 1942.
In 1950 proofs were once again offered but now they were only available in full sets and you could no longer request individual coins.
The proof coins from 1936 to mid 1955 came packaged in individual sleeves and usually packed in a square cardboard box. The sleeves were cellophane through mid 1954 and polyethylene then through mid 1955. In mid 1955 the mint switched to what is called the flat pack, each coin sealed into its own pocket between two layers of "pliofilm". This was the standard holder used though 1964 when the 90% silver coins ended.
No proofs were struck 1965 - 67.
In 1968 proof coin mintage moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco and the coins were package in ridged plastic holders. The 68 - 70 set had all the coins in the set. In 1971 it starts to get more complicated.
In 1971 and 72 the sets did not contain the silver dollar. The only proof dollars those years were 40% silver and sold separately. In 1973 the sets did include a clad dollar but the individual 40% silver Ikes continued to be sold separately in 73 and 74.
The 1975 and 76 sets had the cent nickel and dime for those years but they both contained the bicentennial quarter, half, and dollar. The 1975 sets had Type I bicentennial dollars and the 1976 sets had type II Bicentennial dollars.
Also in 1975 through 1982 the mint sold 40% silver three coin bicentennial proof sets. All of the dollars in these sets were Type I
From 1977 to 1998 the regular proof sets had all of the coins cent through dollar that were struck that year. In 1999 the production of the
SBA came so late in the year that it could not be included in the proof set so it was offered separately as a single coin. Interestingly the 1999
SBA proof dollar is from Philadelphia rather than San Francisco.
The 2000 - 2006 sets contained the cent throgh dime,
State Quarters, half and dollar. The 2007 and 2008 sets also contain the four President dollars as well.
Beginning in 1992 the mint also has offered "Silver proof sets" which have the same coins as the regular clad sets except the dime quarters and half are
90% silver.
The mint has also sold some other proof sets since 1980 such as the premier proof sets which had the clad proof coins and one or two of the commemorative coins for the year. and for the pst three years they have had the Legacy proof set which has the clad proofs plus both of the commemorative dollars for that year.
I've probably miss a few things but that should explain the basics.
This was the first proof set made, and though it is expensive, it's worth it!
Posted 12/12/2008 12:40 pm
to the forum.
Oh, wait! Are you talking about in the world? I was talking about in the U.S. By the way, the pictures of proof sets I have seen have them encapsulated in a plastic bar with a sheet of paper inside telling you the names of the coins.
