Bundled the purchase of 4 Proof sets in one internet deal

Hello friends,

As I have previously written, I have added to my collecting goals the completion of Proof sets from 1954-1964 in the NGC multi holders.

After diligently searching ebay for months I had found the 1955, 1958, 1960 (small date cent) and 1964 sets with the 1955 PF 67/ PF68 (the nickel) set clearly the crown jewel of these holdings.

Constant ebay searching resulted in no new purchases for over two months, not necessarily a big deal as I didn't think this would be easy. But an expanded search on google for the 1956 Proof set led me to a May 29 2010 posting on Collectors Universe Board authored by Dan Chapman and a discussion of the multi coin holders and a link to his web-site vintageproofs.com.

To my surprise I found that the website had four of the proof sets I had been seeking, the 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1963 dates.

I quickly did my homework, checked grades, pricing and made a fair deal with for all of the sets.

Dan was easy to work with, payment was made easy via payal, and in a week the sets arrived nicely packaged. After a delay in getting 2 of the sets scored in the NGC Registry( they were held by another registry user ) the sets are now scored and I am one happy camper -- thank you for your help Alison !

I am not one to care about the holder ( as long as it is NGC or PCGS ) and I believe you should always "buy the coin not the holder" however keeping the coins as a "proof set" and not as individual proof coins somehow very much appeals to me. Add in the fact that the coins are mostly graded PF67 with a few outlier PF 68s and PF66's and the quality far exceeds any sets I can find raw in the original mint packaging, which I so fondly remember from my youth. ( I guess I'm still coming to grips that it is now 50 years since the 1964 Kennedy Half dollars were first introduced and another 10 years further from the 1954 set).

In researching the proof sets it is clear that the 1954-64 era encompassed a huge coin collecting growth period for our hobby. To validate the point, Proof sets sold grew from annual mintage of around 50,000 in 1950 to about 129,000 in 1953. Then, in 1954 sets nearly doubled to 233,000 and almost doubled again the next year to 378,000. From there it is a graph that would make any sales manager green with envy, 669,000 sets in 1956, 1,248,000 sets in 1957, a slight dip to 875,000 sets in 1958 ( recession I believe), then 1,149,000, 1,692,000, 3,028,244, 3,218,000 3,075,000 and 3,951,000 proof sets sold respectively from 1959 through 1964.

The 1964 mintage total is especially interesting, as only three subsequent years ( 1976 the bi-centennial) , 1981 and 1987 exceeded this total , with the 1976 mintage of 4,150,000 plus another 4 million of the 3 coin set the high water mark of Proof sets. The mint has subsequently increased ( or diluted ) the proof set offerings depending on one's perspective plus increased the numerous commemorative offerings thus giving lots of other new product alternatives to collectors. Regardless, it is quite clear that the halcyon proof set growth years the 1950s and 1960s are but a distant memory and long gone... just like a Mickey Mantle home-run of the time !!

With regard to pricing, the underlying, basic 1954-1964 proof sets in the original packaging are finally showing a bit of positive price movement after years of lying dormant. For all years discussed, only a very small percentage of the population has been graded by the major services as incurring certification costs and breaking up sets to receive a PF65 is not a sound financial move on most submittals. Pricing for graded proof coins can get pricey in grades PF68 & PF69, plus heavy premiums are paid for cameo coins of this era.

For pricing on the multi coin holders I have generally found that the sum of the parts (the individual coins ) is greater than the price of the multi-holder sets so this is another good reason to buy them this way.

One final point/ benefit, I purchased NGC's multi coin holder storage box for these sets, The box is 8"*5'*4" or 160 cubic inches and holds 10 sets or 50 coins. An NGC box of 20 is 10"*2.5"*3.5" or 87.5 cubic inches or 218.75 cubic inches (2.5 boxes) to hold an equivalent 50 coins a savings of 27% for those that are storage space challenged like myself. .

As always, thanks for reading and happy collecting !

Rich

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