My most recent submission is worth at least 3 separate journals after some issues I had, some newly discovered info, to discuss the coins and overall grades ( 8 of the coins were for custom sets) and of course, the completion of 2 of my Bahamian Silver Registry Sets.........

The Bahamas Mint State silver coins had a relatively short lifespan. There are just 6 years of these issues with quite limited mintages ( it is a smallish island nation so 10's of millions would have made no sense.) The first issue was in 1966 with your 8 coin sets and the 50c, $1, $2 and $5 coins being silver. The $5 coin has an ASW of almost 1.3 oz's and the $2 coins are well above the silver content of the US silver dollar, so these are large and heavy silver coins.

After the 1966 issue, no new sets were made until 1969 and then they were produced yearly for 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973--after 1973, only the proof sets contained the 4 large silver coins ( and some SP sets and commems also were silver) but the mint sets had switched to cuni and alloys.

I started collecting these coins originally because of the beautiful designs and the fact that I could sometimes even snag them below silver cost as it seemed 10+ years ago that not many people realized the ASW of nearly 3 oz's in each mint set. I have also fallen in love with the finish of these coins which appear almost burnished- containing an "inner glow" as they have a simmering sort of shine which does not reflect as much or cartwheel like the very light reflective silver. Who knows, maybe they are burnished in some part of production-much like the burnished silver eagles which have the planchettes spun in a tumbler with fine sand or tiny metal beads.

Anyhow, with the wonderful additions of the 1971 "Dancing Marlin" 50c and the 1973 "Flamingos at sunrise" $2 coin, I have now completed 2 more sets. I recently got some free photography lights so I may try and improve my pics ( or at least make them all uniform.) now that the sets are done--and with just 12 coins to photo/crop/size it won't be too big of a project.

Here are the pics, what do you think? Burnished finish?