When Is A "Searched Bag" Really An Unsearched Bag?

Thanks for sharing! Very nice finds!
Definitely depends on who's doing the searching, and even then, examples get overlooked.

I picked up a 40's-50's LWC bag from my LCS in the early parts of Covid to kill some time for me and the kiddos. I pulled a '36 DDO T1 that ended up grading VF20. Not a grand slam, but certainly an oversight given my LCS searches major varieties and there was only a handful of 30's in the bag.

I find random unsearched bags, but in my experience, they don't contain valuable stuff.

The only time I score something good is when the person selling doesn't have interest in numismatics and are selling the coins to get rid of them .

An example is when I saw a bundle of coins with a fake 1792 Draped Bust Dollar. But I don't hunt for unsearched bags anymore.

I only consider a bag unsearched when it is unsearched by me.

I handled the "shed inventory" of a coin dealer that passed away in Ottawa in 2018 (Allan Davies). His main inventory was handled by good friend and coin dealer but Allan had a sense of humour and knew I like to search mint bags and such, and had instructed his heirs to contact me for "stuff in the shed". So, after their father's funeral (which I attended), his kids invited me to come clean out the shed...

I gravely feared for the suspension of my SUV, as there were several trips made to that shed carrying many hundred pounds per load. Some stuff was in giant coffee cans, some in canvas bag and many, many sealed mint bags of coins. Of course, being in a shed in a temperature climate in central Canada, some of the bags that were sitting on the ground did not fare so well... some of the mint sealed bags were stained green half way up!

I paid by the pound for 1c and 5c coins, two years later, I still have not gone through it all... (and likely won't).


There were rolls of AU to mint state Tombac 5c coins... I stress the word "were" here...

Oh my!

Pro tip: Do not keep your coins in the shed.

Jeez, the conditions the coins were in. They're destroyed.

The last bag of 5000 wheat cents I picked up at a local coin shop (now closed) had 770+ steel cents in XF+ to AU+ condition--no rust/corrosion. Turns out the shop owner was hurrying to fill the bag just as I arrived to get it. He was breaking down several old Whitman folders of steel cents to get the count to 5000. I saw the torn up folders and a few loose steelies on his counter as he was tying the bag. He always had a decent mix of dates and mints so I was confident of the bag's overall quality--all for $250. Also found in the bag were a couple dozen nice '32s and '33s, two '26 Ss, and another two 24 Ds.

His shop had a basement, but no shed.