During the early 1970’s the coin market was recovering from an attack aimed at discouraging the hobby. There was tremendous hoarding of practically all change in circulation, from cents to half dollars and the credit for creating the problem was given to the numismatic community. To remedy the situation and discourage coin collecting, proof set production was halted in 1965 and replaced with a run of “Special Mint Sets”. And, mint marks were removed, making it impossible to build sets using branch mint issues. Although mint marks were restored in 1968, the mint set production was canceled for the years, 1982 and 1983. Although mintage totals were high, circulated coins from the two years in all denominations are expensive and difficult to locate.

 The SMS sets, minted 1965 – 1967, were not proof quality, but most of sets contained nice coins with a few cameos thrown in. The first set was shipped in a soft sleeve but the last , two, 1966 and 1967, were housed in a hard plastic case and shipped in a thin blue cardboard container. Of the three, my favorite was the 1967 which contained a relatively low mintage Kennedy half dollar. Perhaps, the most important quality of the sets was the inclusion of a 40% silver half dollar. Mint marks were restored in 1968 with the addition of a “S” for the coins minted at the San Francisco facility. This gave collectors three mint marks to search for as they completed their coin sets. Silver had been replaced with a clad composition in quarter and dime and only halves were reduced from 90% to 40% for the years, 1965 – 1970. Beginning in 1971, the Kennedy halves were also struck in the clad composition.

Although all the things being done by the mint to discourage coin collecting were news during the early 1970’s, the removal of silver from coins and rising silver prices were two key factors on the minds of collectors and investors.

 Silver prices rose high enough during the early 1960s that the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Mint decided it could no longer produce 90% silver coins for circulation. With a few calculations, it became obvious the silver coins were worth more than their face values. Therefore, the dime contained more than 10 cents in silver value. As a result, with silver rising above $1.20 an ounce at the time, in 1965 the U.S. Mint switched to using copper / nickel for the dime and the quarter and 40% silver content in the half dollar. In 1971, all silver was removed from the half-dollar. Personally, at this time I remember many older collectors saying the removal of silver from the coins was the end of the hobby for them. They refused to collect the “Sandwich” coins! During the 1970s, inflation and a failing economy pushed the prices of everything from gasoline to milk through the roof. Even interest rates were climbing to monumental highs. At the time, 2 brothers in the Hunt family which, at the time, was among the nation's richest oil families had been heavily investing in silver. In fact, during the course of the mid-to-late 1970s, their silver purchases began influencing the silver market. Silver prices quickly rose above $10 an ounce in 1979, and people began trading in their silver coins for cash. Personally, I can remember silver prices of $50 an ounce falling to $35 in just one day. The buyers at the local firms were in a big rush to sell as quickly as they bought to avoid being caught with metal they could not turn for a quick profit.

 As a result of the high silver prices, many collectors with sets ranging from dimes to silver dollars sold out for what appeared and was their last chance to make a huge profit from their hobbies. My Dad had two huge notebooks of Morgan dollars with practically every date and mint mark, a possession he was proud to own and enjoyed showing. However, he could not resist the temptation to realize a nice profit. Many family heirlooms, antique silverware, jewelry, and gold pocket watches went to the scrap heap. People waited in long lines to sell everything they could gather.

Overall interest in Morgan Dollars skyrocketed, and with the publication of the news that important rare date coins were being released from the Treasury vaults, the rush was on. Now, after putting a stop to the unprecedented run on the Treasury’s holdings, auditors would soon discover that the remaining stock consisted of only about 3,000 bags of uncirculated coins, mostly from the Carson City Mint.

While the rare coin market digested the many thousands of bags of newly released silver dollars, some government planners suggested melting the remaining silver dollars and offering the metal as bullion! Fortunately, this outrageous idea was scrapped. After many years of debate, it was decided to sell the coins to the general public through a series of mail bid sales to be conducted by the General Services Administration, or GSA. It was believed that this would be a fair and equitable manner in which to distribute the coins to U.S. citizens.

President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill on December 31, 1970 authorizing the sale of the Treasury’s holdings of silver dollars. On December 6, 1971 official custody of the coins was finally transferred to the U.S. Bullion Depository at West Point, NY where the GSA accepted trusteeship. After nearly a year of counting, sorting, and packaging of the coins by the GSA staff, the details of the first mail-bid sale were finally released on October 31, 1972.

A series of five sales of the Carson City Silver Dollars were held with the final sale closing, June 30, 1974. Despite a massive advertising campaign on the part of the GSA, the silver dollar sales were definitely met with lukewarm interest and poor results. Anticipating much greater demand than actually realized, the GSA had stipulated that each customer could purchase only one example of each date represented in the sale. While dates such as the 1879-CC, 1890-CC, and 1891- CC quickly sold out, most others went begging. When the dust finally settled on that last sale of 1974, nearly one million of the Carson City silver dollars remained unsold!

The issue of the remaining coins lay dormant for a number of years until it was again brought before the U.S. Congress in early 1977. Finally, in March of 1979, legislation was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter authorizing the GSA to sell the remaining Carson City silver dollars still in its possession.

In July of 1979, the GSA announced preliminary plans to offer the nearly one million remaining Carson City silver dollars in another round of mail-bid sales set to begin in early 1980. Along with this announcement, the GSA commented that over 25,000 requests for information had already been received from interested parties. A September press release noted that interest was running extremely high with over 130,000 post card requests from collectors to be added to the GSA mailing list. Many bidders ended up with no coins at all and I’ve often wondered if those who mailed their bids in early with a requested minimum greater than 35 coins were not excluded altogether. Reaction was swift, and predictable. Complaints poured into local and national newspapers, industry related magazines and periodicals, and most importantly, into the U.S. Congress. Even before the final sale in July of 1980 disposed of the remaining Carson City silver dollars in the GSA’s possession, hearings before the U.S. Congress were already being planned in Washington. While the sales of the 1970’s were marked by a decided lack of interest on the part of the buying public, the GSA sales of 1980 can only be described as chaotic.

When PCGS and NGC introduced their grading services during the mid 1980’s, the rare coin marketplace changed dramatically. Dealers and collectors alike quickly accepted the innovative ideas of the two companies. But, in order to receive their grade and other company offered guarantees, both companies required that a coin be encapsulated in their tamper-resistant plastic holders. Suddenly, all of the coins appearing at shows in the sealed plastic holders were given the “Slab” label, and a coin was either “Raw” or certified. The grades were quickly accepted and the certified coin market flourished as the coins were being traded sight unseen on the internet and through auctioning firms as EBAY.

Although they pale in comparison to GSA sales and rising silver prices, several other happenings in the coin market of the 1970’s included, Eisenhower dollars, Bicentennial coins and sets, and the very short-lived Susan B. Anthony dollar. Except for 1982 and 1983, mint and proof sets were offered by the mint on a yearly basis. Silver was mostly out of the picture, but the Bicentennial sets and Eisenhower dollars included were minted with 40% silver content. Also, additional interest was generated by the discovery of important errors such as the 1972 Double Die Lincoln cent and the 1968 Proof Set with the no “S” dime that is currently listed for approximately $15,000! It was an exciting decade which has greatly affected the current coin market.