The U.S. Mint remains a comfortable distance away from selling out the maximum 225,000-set complement of 225th Anniversary Enhanced Uncirculated Coin sets.

The number of potentially available 2017-S Enhanced Uncirculated Coin sets totaled more than 35,000 sets as of Sept. 3, with the sales total resting at 189,816 pieces.

The 10-coin sets went on sale Aug. 1, featuring coins from cent through dollar having mirror polishing on specific raised elements and laser-frosted fields.

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Recorded sales of the sets have been up and down since the inaugural release. For a brief period of about two days starting Aug. 1, the set was listed as “currently unavailable,” and it appeared that it may have been sold out after being available for only minutes. However, that changed, as a flurry of order cancellations and returns made thousands of new sets available to customers again starting Aug. 3.

How can collectors determine a coin’s value when price guides assign it different values? Also in this week’s print issue, we learn of the first report of a 2017 doubled die variety, found on a Lincoln cent.

The sales totals have changed as follows: Aug. 10, 221,479 sets; Aug. 20, 211,273 sets; Aug. 24, 189,089 sets; and Aug. 27, 187,304 sets.

The sets went on sale through the U.S. Mint’s website and contracted telephone ordering options without a household ordering limit, where they continue to be offered at $29.95 each.

The sets were also offered, but with limits, at sales centers at U.S. Mint headquarters in Washington, D.C., contracted sales outlets at the Denver and Philadelphia Mints, and at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Denver.

The Denver Mint sales outlet restricted sales to 20 sets per purchase but did not prohibit buyers from getting back in line. The purchase limit per transaction at the ANA show was 500 sets, with customers permitted to make more than one pass through the customer line. More than 24,000 sets were sold at the convention.

For customers ordering online and by telephone, the sets went into “Currently Unavailable” status within minutes of the Aug. 1 noon launch, but the cancellation of a 20,000-set order by one unidentified Mint customer made those sets, along with others from cancellation of much smaller orders, available for purchase.

Sales figures are reported to have gone down because of cancellations of orders for various reasons before product was shipped, and returns of sets for reasons including damaged coins, damaged packaging, or both.

Coin World has asked Mint officials about and is awaiting response concerning what officials plan to do with sets returned as damaged, and how that will affect the total number of sets.

There is some indication that some sets were returned and orders cancelled by those who placed them because secondary market prices are not as robust as purchasers speculated. Some sets offered and sold on eBay were priced at little more than what a collector can obtain the sets for directly from the Mint.

Coin World has asked Mint officials to identify who placed the order for 20,000 sets, totaling $599,000 plus shipping, and whether the customer, or the Mint, cancelled the order and for what reason.