The 20th Century Type Set: The Ultimate Coin Collection

Coin collectors pursue all kinds of goals when building their collections. Some may chase after assembling a complete series of Lincoln cents, while others will strive to collect a glimmering holding of Morgan or Peace silver dollars. Further, still, are those who desire to construct sets of Mercury dimes or Walking Liberty half dollars. All are ambitious collecting goals indeed. However, there is another sort of coin collecting objective that not only encompasses the beauty of the designs found on the aforementioned coins, but also allows for one to inexpensively assemble an exciting array of coins that span the century which gave us televison, computers, the space program, and two world wars. Indeed, the twentieth-century type set is not only a pursuit that most any coin collector can potentially afford, but also one which will give the collector a handsome conversation piece, a dazzling display, and a unique illustration of history.

Assembling A 20th Century Type Set

The objective of building a twentieth-century type set is to collect one example of each coin design the United States minted during the twentieth century. There are several interpretations of this goal. While some twentieth-century type set builders believe in collecting just the coins designed for circulation (that is, coins intended to be used everyday by the public), others contend that all coins minted during the twentieth century should be included, which would imply having to also collect gold coins and commemorative coins. However, a basic twentieth-century type set will include one example of every major design of regular-use coin, not including gold coins or commemorative coins, and not taking into account the several minor variations, such as slight design, lettering, or metal modifications. This is this model that will be referred to in this article.