Sellout or mellow out?

The American Legacy Set went on sale yesterday on the Mint Web site at noon Eastern Daylight Time.

Surprised?

I was.

It was not listed on the Mint’s schedule of future offerings.

Word was a while ago that it was coming out in the autumn. I have a handy spot already labeled American Legacy Set in the Commemorative Coins box on the Mint Statistics page in Numismatic News.

If the set sells out its 50,000 maximum in a day or two, the lack of advance word would be either unfortunate or unnecessary, depending on your point of view. If you are the Mint, busily cashing checks and making credit card account transfers, a sellout would ratify events the way they happened.

If you are a Numismatic News reader, you might be miffed there wasn’t much said about it.

We will see how it plays out. Would-be buyers navigating the Mint Web site will find out that the set contains a full U.S. proof set, which includes the five state quarters, four Presidential dollars, Sacagawea dollar, half dollar, dime, nickel and cent.

The set also includes a proof Little Rock silver dollar and a proof Jamestown silver dollar.

The price of $135 might give you a little pause and spur you to make a back-of-the envelope calculation. I did the math.

You can buy the proof set for $26.95, and the silver dollars for $39 each, making a grand total of $104.95, when the pieces are ordered separately. Is the extra cardboard packaging material worth $20.05?

It might be if you figure you can turn the set around on eBay.

But an ordinary collector might balk, especially with winter heating season coming up.

How will it turn out? Make your decision to order or not to order and then let’s watch.