Collecting the Very Rare Depression-era Proof Sets
The US Mint has been issuing proof sets since 1936 to collectors. Though over 3,800 of these 5-coin sets were released, rare coin projections show this as one of the most valuable proof-sets ever released. In fact relatively few of these sets have turned up at auction over the years. This makes the price for such sets something of a guess as to the number of these coins still in existence as a set suitable for those who are historically motivated to buy rare coins.
As such, those who purchase rare coins as investments will set one back considerably to acquire a set – as much as $9,000 for the 1936 series coins still in a proof state and in their original coin holder. Indeed, all the coins in the date range of 1936 to 1942 are worth considerably more than those produced after 1950, with all series fetching at least $1,300 when in proof or near-proof state and in the original holder.
The decision to mint proof coins for the purpose of numismatic collection was an idea put into practice by the US Mint's longest-serving director to date (and the only woman ever appointed to the post), Nellie Tayloe Ross. At the time, numismatics was not even a recognized field, with the standardized grading scale for US coins not to be invented for at least another decade.
The 1936 series featured a full set of the dollar fractions that were circulating at the time, meaning that all the coins except the penny and the nickel were made of 90% silver, including a highly prized proof-version of the Walking Lady Liberty. To modern collectors, precious metal content in such sets is far less important than the rarity of these sets issued just as the nation was beginning to emerge from the worst of the depression and just one year before recession threatened again in 1937.
Throughout the Depression-era years, the set was released as a 5-piece collector's edition retailing for the face value of the coins contained therein. This includes one each of a Lincoln copper penny, Buffalo nickel (replaced by the Jefferson nickel in 1938), Mercury silver dime, Washington silver quarter and the Walking Liberty half dollar. Each of these coins, taken separately and valued according to rare coin projections, is worth as much as a few hundred dollars each.
In 1942, the last year that the proof sets were offered until the war was well over in 1950, featured a six-coin set. Nickel being a highly prized war-time material (as was copper, which led to the creation of the 1943 steel Lincoln penny), so a special war-effort Jefferson nickel was made, each with about 1.75g (0.056 ounce) of pure silver. Both 5-coin and 6-coin sets were released that year, with the 6-coin set fetching as much as a 15% premium over the 5-coin sets.
Rare coin projections continually prize these sets above all others, partly because of the large number of silver coins that were melted down in the 1970s when prices were historically high. Also, the idea of collecting a set of coins just to sit there, especially when people were still going hungry for lack of a nickel, seemed a bit odd. And since many of the sets were given to children as gifts, very few survived 70 years in a pristine mint-proof state.
Danny Burns
April 4, 2009
