Owner Comments:
Among the product offerings included in the U.S. Mint’s 2000 Holiday Catalog was a novel grouping called the United States Millennium Coinage and Currency Set. The set included a 2000-D Sacagawea dollar, a 2000 silver eagle, and a $1 note with the first four digits of its serial number being “2000.” The edition was limited to 75,000 sets. Combining these items into a single set may have been thematically important to the Mint because the silver dollar and the dollar bill are clearly the most recognizable dollars. Now joining the ranks in the new millennium was the golden-colored Sacagawea dollar. Regardless of the intent or the message, there wasn’t too much collector interest in the set—until the sets started arriving in collectors’ hands, that is. When buyers received the sets, they saw that the 2000-D Sacagawea dollar in the set was deeply reflective. It had clearly received special handling from the Mint, having been struck on polished planchets and from polished dies. This fact had not been promoted in the Mint’s literature when they were offered for sale, and the presence of “prooflike” Sacagawea coins ignited a frenzy among collectors. The sets then quickly sold out from the Mint. These coins are referred to as “prooflike” because they have some of the attributes of Proof coinage but are not true Proofs. For example, unlike Proof coins, they are not struck multiple times from the coinage dies, and therefore their striking-detail is no sharper than a regular business-strike (or circulation-issue) coin’s detail. They also don’t have true mirrorlike reflective fields, and unlike current Proofs they are mirrored throughout their surface and don’t display cameo contrast between fields and the design area. Normally these attributes can be quite subtle; however, the differences between the Millennium Set Sacagawea dollar and the regular issue 2000-D Sacagawea are stark enough that they are readily distinguishable. Most collectors consider the Millennium Set Sacagawea dollar to be a required element of the Sacagawea dollar series, and therefore a complete set will have two 2000-D coins: a regular Mint State example and the Millennium Set issue. Its status as a required element of any Sacagawea dollar collection has assured its enduring popularity. While the coin is often found in gem Uncirculated to superb Uncirculated condition, the best examples have very deeply reflective fields and are untoned and virtually free of contact marks or blemishes. Specialist collectors will pay substantial premiums for coins that have especially deep mirrors and are at the highest grades of preservation. In retrospect, the most interesting aspect of this coin may be that the special finish, and therefore the desirability, of this coin was completely unexpected, and that the U.S. Mint had a special surprise for collectors who ordered the set. With 75,000 struck, it remains widely available for today’s collectors, but since it’s now required for set completion, demand certainly isn’t going away.
Garrett, Jeff; Schechter, Scott; Bressett, Kenneth; Bowers, Q. David (2011-03-04). 100 Greatest US Modern Coins (Kindle Locations 1959-1983). Whitman Publishing. Kindle Edition.