Coins - Mint Sets 1970-1979

The 1970s Mint Sets contained as few as ten coins and as many as thirteen coins. The sets included two pliofilm sleeves sandwiched between two cards in an envelope.

The 1970 mint sets were the last standard issue to contain any silver. The Kennedy half dollar was not made for circulation that year, however the coin in the mint set contained 40% silver.

The first mint set of the 1970s included ten uncirculated coins. The 1971 and 1972 mint sets had eleven coins which increased to thirteen coins in the 1973 and 1974 mint sets.

For the 1975 through 1978 standard issue mint sets, the San Francisco mint had stopped production of any circulating coins, thus the mint sets included coins only from Denver and Philadelphia. Those mint sets contained twelve coins with two of the Lincoln penny, the Jefferson nickel, the Roosevelt dime, the Washington quarter, the Kennedy half dollar and the Eisenhower dollar. In 1979, the San Francisco mint produced the new Anthony dollar for cirulation, but the 1979 mint set did not contain any of the "S" mint mark dollars.

The Mint Sets were packaged in two pliofilm sleeves with coins sealed in their own compartments. The Philadelphia sleeve had blue edges, and the Denver sleeve had red edges.

For the ten-coin mint sets in 1970, both sleeves included plastic tokens identifying the originating mint. The eleven-coin mint sets of 1971 and 1972 included only one token in one the Denver sleeve identifying the set as an uncirculated mint set. The mint sets of 1973 through 1979 did not include any identifying tokens.

To celebrate the nation's 200th birthday in 1976, the mint produced a special three-coin set with the bicentennial quarter, half dollar and dollar coins. The coins in the special sets provided in a red outer envelope contained 40% silver.

The standard issue mint sets in 1975 and 1976 also contained the three special bicentennial coins, one each from Philadelphia and Denver, in addition to the other coins. But, the standard issue mint sets included only cupronickel versions of the coins with the special bicentennial designs.

Click on the individual year links below for more details, including pictures, about the Mint Sets and their contents.