A Set Honoring America's Past-Time: The 1992 'Nolan Ryan' Prestige Proof Set

With the NFL Playoffs coming to a close this past weekend, and Spring Training less than a month away, Baseball fever is slowly catching on again in the States! As one team's season comes to an often unfortunate end, hope springs eternal once more as their focus shifts towards the future and the promised spring training brings each year. To help ease the pain of the football season's end, we have decided to bring back America's FIRST ever Baseball themed proof set released by the United States Mint!

Baseball is often considered by most to be America's pastime, and special release coins (half dollars & dollars) have been released for over 100 years by the U.S. Mint, dating all the way back to 1892. In all their years of production, the U.S. Mint didn't pay tribute to the game of baseball, the sport collectively known world-wide as "America's Game," until 1992. But when they did, they knocked it straight out of the park!

The Secret 1992 'Nolan Ryan' Prestige Proof Set

In 1983 the U.S. Mint introduced the Prestige Proof Set. It was a "Special" or "Deluxe" Proof Set for collectors that included the 6 regular issue coins (cent thru half dollar) as well as the special Commemorative coin(s) minted that year by the U.S. Mint. These Prestige Proof Sets were issued annually between 1983 and 1997, with one exception being 1985 when the United States Mint decided not to produce a set for that year.

Nolan Ryan's image was stolen? By the U.S. Mint!!!??

When the 1992 Baseball Silver Dollar was issued it created quite a bit of excitement...it was the first tribute to America's game on a U.S. coin. But shortly after its release, the issue of "who's on the coin" was all the talk. A baseball card collector said it was the exact image of Nolan Ryan from his 1991 Fleer card #302. Studying the card and the coin's design closely will prove the claim.

Did the U.S. Mint copy a baseball card design? The pitcher's arm location, how the glove is being held, and even the jersey's wrinkle are EXACTLY the same on both the card's picture and the coin's portrait.

Major League Baseball's First Silver Dollar

The Prestige Proof Set has the KEY baseball issue in 1992, but that is not all! The U.S. Mint added two special release coins: the Olympic Half Dollar (gymnast) and the Baseball Silver Dollar. Not only is it in the finest presentation, it is also the lowest mintage set. The regular five coin proof set had over 2.6 million; the five coin silver set had over 1 million...even the deluxe Silver Premier was over 300,000. But this Prestige had only 183,293. Let's put that into perspective...that's only 6,300 sets for each major league baseball team...we're not even counting the coin collectors!