Ruben Safir Coins Collection: Eisenhower Clad and Silver Dollars

Coin Collecting at the Safir House
Eisenhower Clad and Silver Dollars

The Eisenhower Dollar of the 1970's is a good place for beginners to start collecting. The series has several advantages which include low costs of aquestion, and a short series making it easy to complete. In fact, as of this writing in 2007 it is still possible to get Ike's in circulation

Ike's also have a silver version and the clad version. The silver is 40% silver clad which the circulation versions are the same clad composition as the clad Washington quarter.

While a beginner can fill out an Eisenhower collection quickly and with few expenses, getting high grade circulation grade Ikes can be more challenging giving a beginner room to grow. Higher grade 1971 Ike's are not easy to uncover for good prices. So a Eisenhower Collector needs to keep his eye out for this dates in MS66 or higher. As of this writing, PSGC has only graded 21 '71 Ikes at MS66 Between the poor strikes and the large number of scratches in these coins from the bagging process, there are few high quality examples.

The design of the Eisenhower dollar has perhaps the most lifelike protrait of any US Coin design on the obverse, as created by Frank Gasparro. In proof these coins leap at the viewer with the likeness of Eisenhower almost floating on deep cameo fields. Details including the folds in the neck skin finish off the image in perfect detail. The reverse was designed by Michael Collins and James Cooper. The only coin to have a view of the Earth from the Moon celebrated the Apollo Moon shots of the 1970's. This made the coin an instant success with every 5 year old child of the time, including yourself truly. In fact, the reverse design of an eagle perched on the Moon outlived the Eisenhower itself when it was adopted by the Susan B Anthony dollar which was to follow.

The Basic Type ran from 1971 until 1974. In 1975 and 1976, the bicentential Dollar, Half and Quarter was released. The 1973's were origianlly only available in mint or proof sets. The Silver sets were minted in San Fransico at mint coins and as proofs. there are rare D silver coins as well, which are considered errors.

Eagle and Moon Eisenhower Reverse Design: 1978 S Proof

The eagle on the Eisenhower Dollar was reworked from the original design. By the 1970's it seems that even our coinage was swepted into the politics of the Cold War. It was decided that the eagle needed to be a friendly face to the nations of the world. It was decided to have this "Disneyed" version of the eagle, wing stretch up and foundly waving at the onlooking public.

Bicentenial Eisenhower Reverse Design: 1976 S Proof Clad

This the Bicentential in 1976, the 1975, 1976 and 1977 coins were all of the Bicentential coin type with the Liberty Bell and the Moon on the reverse. This is similar to the Liberty Bell on the Franklin Half Dollars, but clearer. It makes for a very nice reverse. This example is a Clab Eisenhower. The Clad proofs can shine very nicely when they come from the mint. The 1978 proofs are commonly very reflective. Its hard to photograph such detail but in ths movie of this 1976 Eisenhower you can see the ceiling fan spinning in the mirror like fields. The fan is 8 feet from the coin.

Eisenhower Dollars were distributed as 40% silver coins available from the minti in special packaging from 1971 through the bicentenial. Struck both as proof and as uncirculated coins, they were origianlly sold in plastic wrap. Here are examples of 1971 uncirculated sets. Click on the images for a full size view of the complete packaging.

I very good look at the 1971 S Obverse uncirculated and the reverse show great detail of one of the silver uncirculated coins. Getting these coins in high grade is not easy. They seem to have bruised easy in the minting process when falling off the mints stamper. I particlarly like this coins view of earth which determines several sub-types of Eisenhower coins.

Eisenhower and many modern clad coins can be difficult to find in top grade. This explanation from my friend CladKing on CoinTalk is a good explaination of why. I take liberty to quote it here:

GDJMSP nailed the proof sets and current mint sets.
The older mint sets have a great deal of diversity from date to date and from coin to coin. Almost all of the finest coins made in the last couple of generations went into the mint sets. Those which didn't go in the mint sets almost always went into circulation and became lost or worn. In some cases there are virtually no examples of a coin that didn't come from a mint set.
Perhaps the finest made of the mint set clads would be the 1972-D quarter. This coin would average MS-64 with 25% going MS-65 or better. Even MS-67's for this date are not rare. The best made of the cents in sets might be the '88-D. This would average MS-66 and very highly PL MS-69's are rarely available.
The worst made mint set coin is, hands down, the '76-P type I Ike in the '75 mint set. Fully half of these can't even be sold as BU since they are so ugly. Just finding a nice attractive MS-63 can be a chore. Gems are rare. Not too far behind it would be a 1969-P quarter. This coin is horrid in the sets and while MS-63's aren't too tough gems are highly elusive. When this set was made perhaps 1 coin in 300 would go gem but the years have not been kind to this set. Large percentages of them have tarnished and there are a few people who selectively seek this coin. Of course it's hard to impact the population of something you can't find. The problem is exascerbated by the fact that a large percentage of this date has been destroyed over the years because of its limited value and the silver run-up that made it profitable to destroy them for the single 40% silver half in them.
These are the extremes. In between there is almost everything. As a rule if one coin in a set tends nice then they all do but there are numerous exceptions. There is a lot of variability between the mints too. Denver is usually much nicer but if you look at only the very finest coins than the Phillys tend to be better.
In 1986 the mint started polishing or burnishing some of the mint set planchets. When these were struck by a new pair of dies some spectacular coins were made but they were usually covered in small scratches that make them quite unsightly.
A lot of the pennys are just a lost cause now. For instance every single 1968 cent from mint sets has carbon spots now. The vast majority are just ugly because of this spotting. (~95%) God only knows what collectors are going to do for gems of this date. Some roll coins are OK but these are hard to find with good strikes. The '84-D is rapidly going the same way. Most of these were pretty ugly to start with because of bad surfaces resulting from plating problems and striking characteristics so it's not as big of loss but roll coins of this date are tough and also suffer from the same problems. The late '70's cents from sets are hard to find without lots of scratches.
I usually figure that two mint sets out of three will have at least one nice coin and this works well as a rule of thumb. Typically the nice coin will be something that is expected like an MS-64 cent or dime but it could be a choice gem '76 type I dollar.
Before 1980 you can find a surprising number of sets that contain all gem coins. I suspect that this was the year they went to automated equipment for filling these sets.

Oh course, one as of this date (August of 2007) can still find Eisenhower Dollars occasionally in ciruclation. These can be of suprisingly good condition since they circulated so minimally. This is one of my favorite example, a 1977 D that I pulled from a cash register in one of the Pharmacies that I've worked at over the years. It's a fine strike of a 1977 Ike.