A treasure hunt is occurring among buyers of the U.S. Mint’s new 2012 Birth Sets as they look to see if they have gotten one of the sets that includes a proof silver 2012-S half dollar instead of a clad 2012-S half dollar.
Stray silver proof halves in the sets were first reported by www.mintnewsblog.com March 28.
The U.S. Mint said on April 4 that it had inspected 5,831 sets that it had in inventory and found that 17 sets, or 0.29 percent of them, had the silver half dollar mistakenly included in them.
Blamed for this slip was the material handling area at the San Francisco Mint, but the specific cause was still being looked into.
As of April 2, the Mint had sold 8,315 Birth Sets. If all of these had been shipped before inspection and if the same incidence level occurs with these sets as with those still in inventory, a total of 24 sets might be found.
Unfortunately, because the error is a wrong coin in a package, there will be little long-term collectible premium attached to it because it can be easily duplicated after the 2012 silver proof sets are released in June.
The Birth Set features a proof cent, nickel, dime, a proof El Yunque quarter and a proof half dollar and is priced at $19.95.
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