Lincoln Cent Birthplace Roll Set Pricing

Today, the US Mint officially announced the Lincoln Cent Birthplace Two Roll Set offering. Last week, entries for the roll sets had been added to the US Mint's 2009 Product Schedule, but pricing for the offering was not revealed.

The Two-Roll Sets will go on sale March 13, 2009 at 12:00 Noon ET. Each set will contain one roll of 50 coins from the Philadelphia Mint and one roll of 50 coins from the Denver Mint. The Lincoln Cent rolls will have custom designed US Mint wrappers. The roll sets will be priced at $8.95.

I thought that the rolls would be priced lower than this. When the US Mint had previously offered Two-Roll Sets of nickels, they had been priced at $8.95. Above the $4 face value of the nickels, this represented a premium of $4.95. Since the 2009 Lincoln Cent roll sets have a face value of $1, the premium above face value is a hefty $7.95. On top of that, a shipping and handling fee of $4.95 is added to all orders.

While the press release does not mention it, I have confirmed that the rolls will contain the zinc versions of the 2009 Lincoln Cents, identical to the coins struck for circulation. Many collectors have expressed interest in the 95% copper or bronze versions of the 2009 Lincoln Cents. So far, it seems that these coins will be offered in the 2009 Mint Set, 2009 Proof Set, 2009 Silver Proof Set, and 2009 Lincoln Five Coin Set.