A client would come in and ask for a 1950 or 1951 Proof set and since we had bought a quantity direct from the Mint, we took a box out of a drawer, and proceeded to slice it open so the buyer could see just what he was buying . "[I] don't want one from an open box," he would say, " if you have one sealed I will take it, if not, forget the sale ! "

Hearing this I or any of our other [salesmen] would reply, "how do you know what is in the box ? how can you be sure what you are getting ? Maybe there is nothing in the box, or it is filled with sink washers, or just dirty old coins?"

The client would shout back, " I read and heard the value was in the sealed box, and if you cannot get one like I asked for, I will leave the store !" So to please the client, who was so uninformed that we took another SEALED BOX out of the [drawer] and gently handed it to so it would not "drop on the counter" and again lose its value because the box could have been dented(?) and made the sale.

Tony Terranova writes:

To read the complete article, see:
1950 RETURN OF THE PROOF SET(https://staging.marketplace.stacksbowers.com/return-proof-set/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: MARCH 30, 2014(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n13a22.html)
QUERY: PRE-1955 U.S. PROOF SET BOXES SOUGHT(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n18a10.html)
MORE ON PRE-1955 U.S. PROOF SET SHIPPING BOXES(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n19a19.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MARCH 26, 2023 : U.S. Mint Proof Set Packaging 1950-1951(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n13a18.html)