Sellout or no sellout?

Gold passed the $1,300 level this morning.

My mind was on gold for a different reason.

I began my day in the dentist chair. With the age of my teeth, each visit becomes a question of whether I might need to replace on old gold crown with a newer one not made of precious metal.

Everything proved to be stable and the amount of gold in my mouth will stay the same for the time being.

Another gold-colored thought this morning relates to what the Mint calls the golden dollar in the 2016 American $1 Coin and Currency Set.

How will collectors respond to it when it goes on sale at noon Eastern Daylight Time?

The first such set sold out when word got out that the golden dollar was no ordinary uncirculated coin but an enhanced uncirculated piece. Taken up quickly then was the full 50,000 mintage.

The 2015 set saw the Mint increase the mintage to 90,000. It did not sell out. It passed the 88,000 level but could not make it to 90,000.

The 2016 set has had its mintage cut back to 75,000. There is a household order limit of five sets. Issue price is $14.95, the same as last year’s set and $1 more than the 2014 set.

The dollar coin in this year’s set honors Native American code talkers who served our military with distinction in World War I and World War II.

The mintmark on this year’s coin is the “S” for San Francisco. It follows last year’s “W” and the “D” from the 2014.

Will a different mintmark even enter into collector calculation or will buyers simply be focusing on sellout potential or keeping their collections complete?

It might seem funny, but like most coin collectors, the $1 Federal Reserve Note in the set is an afterthought for me. The Series 2013 FRN will have a low serial number, which is important to paper money collectors, but I think most buyers of this set are homing in on the coin with its enhanced uncirculated finish.

The set will rise or fall on the perception of the coin and its relative scarcity.

Will 75,000 prove to be too many or will the set sell out?

In an hour when the Mint begins to take orders, we will begin to answer that question.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

• Like this blog? Read more by subscribing to Numismatic News.