There was an interesting warning in one of the columns in this weeks CoinWorld. It seem that a number of 1999 silver proof sets have been sold with the coins being replaced by the clad versions. It wasn't stated as a common problem but one of the grading services has seen a number of submissions with this problem. The article indicated that even the edges are being colored silver to cover up the layering on the clads.

As long as $$ are involved I guess there will always be slime balls looking to take advantage of others. This is the second time of heard of this and hopefully it is not a pattern

With such a large spread in value between the 1999 clad and proof, this should probably not spread to other years at least in the immediate future. Thanks for the heads up Art!

Just for clarification. Do they think it was some slime balls or the mint that switched out the silver?

The article I read was talking about post-mint swapping. They even talked about the cases being reclosed with a little superglue to keep them together.

So why do those sets go for so much more? I don't know the mintages off the top of my head.

Well with the 1999 Silver proof sets, I think it is because that most people didn't order them. The average collector ordered the standard issue proof set. Then a demand came for the silver sets in 2001 and the prices started to climb on the '99 silver set.

Alot of the sets have been broken open to have the silver quarters graded by TPG's and put into albums. So anyone with an intact set has something that has become valuable.

I wish i had bought more than 1 when they came out. But I don't buy things from the mint to flip them.

Hmm.. 2001, thats when I started buying silver proof sets. I guess the new collectors "matured" after their 2nd clad proofset.

I've been tempted to buy a second or third set each year to flip them but they haven't been hitting the same marks they hit the last few years in the aftermarket.