This silver dime, it’s different

The buildup begins for the March of Dimes Special Silver Set that will be put on sale by the U.S. Mint May 4.

I had a short and sweet email about it yesterday.

With the name of the set put in the email subject line, the text simply asked, “Can you tell me how many sets will be produced and go on sale 5-4-15? Thanks!”

I have blogged about the set several times previous to this one. The order and mintage information has been in Numismatic News. I wrote a column about the set’s appeal in a Numismatic News Express “Class of ’63” column, but somehow the mintage figure has eluded the writer.

It is 75,000.

It’s low.

Perhaps the writer was simply trying to confirm the number, assuming that a desirable set like this should have a mintage of 750,000.

It probably should.

Certainly 10 or 15 years ago it would have.

As anyone knows, typographical errors are possible. Dropping a zero in a mintage figure would be easy enough to do.

While I am sure many readers have read every single mention that has been made about the set, in our busy lives it is all too easy to scan an article or blog and then forget it, or perhaps there was no time to read any of it in the first place.

But that basic collector impulse is there.

Who doesn’t have an urge to buy the first-ever reverse proof 90 percent silver dime?

There is also a regular proof silver dime and the proof March of Dimes silver dollar in the set.

This set is the only way to acquire either dime.

The reverse proof has a “P” mintmark. The proof silver dime has a “W” mintmark to distinguish it from the standard silver proof set version struck at the “S” mint.

Price of the march of Dimes set is $61.95.

This is indeed a desirable set.

It will probably sell out even with the household order limit of five sets.

If everyone bought five, it only takes 15,000 buyers to snap up the entire supply.

Even for the long-sleeping Roosevelt dime series, I think there are at least 15,000 collectors who can become excited about it.

Perhaps this email is the only one I will receive on the topic, but I know there are many collectors out there eyeing this set and making plans for taking action at noon Eastern time on Monday, May 4.

Are you one of them?

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2014 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."