1976D mint set

[Steven]

I have only one 1976D mint set. When I bought it as a 1976D mint set and then later looked at it a little closer I found that the quarter, half and dollar are 76D but the cent, nickel and dime are 75D. Is this normal or possibly a mistake by the mint? This is the flat pack.
Thanks,
Steven

[Bob P]

Steven,
The 1976 mint set should all have 1976D on them. Now...the 1975 mint set should have the cent, nickel and dime as 1975D, but the quarter, half, and dollar should all be the bicentennial 1776-1976 coins. You should not find any quarters, halves and dollars dated 1975 as that was when they released the bicentennial coins.
So..in a nut shell, you have a 1975 mint set.

[Steven]

Thanks Bob.

[smed]

If you do find a dollar, half or quarter dated 1975... one of two things will happen... it'll turn out to be fake (99.9999%) or you'll have a very valuable coin (0.0001%)

IOW, one in a million chance

[cladking]

There are more differences between the '75 and '76 sets than are readily apparent. First off, you should have two packets, one with blue stripes and one with red stripes and both should have '75 dated cents.

Mint set quality varies year to year and coin to coin. 1975 was a pretty poor year for quality. Most of these coins in this set appear as spectacular gems almost as nice as most dates of the era but less frequently and average quality is lower. The Philly dime and dollar are particularly bad in this set. Both quarters can be stunning and very PL in the '75 set but are much less often seen in this set than the '76.

Both of the Ikes are different in the '75 set. Both the obverse and reverse dies were reworked shortly after this set went into production ant the type II IKes were born. All '75 sets contain the type I's and all '76 are type II's. There are no mules reported and the most dramatic difference on the obverse if you want to look for these is the crease on the neck.

The cents from both these set are awful but the '75's are probably a little easier in gem but gem may start a little lower.

These sets are often mixed up in the packages because people don't know. Prices used to be very similar but the '76 soared a few years back and the '75 didn't quite keep pace. Since then the '76 has fallen hard and the '75 now sell for much more. This probably is because the type I Philly Ike is getting pretty tough to find. Only about 50% of the mint set coins are nice enough for the wholesalers and mint sets get fewer every year.

[murphy]

Cladking, I love reading your posts. They are so full of useful information! Thank you very much.

[cladking]

[Bob P]

Very well said, and thanks for expanding on this thread a bit. The little bit of extra information always helps