To Open Or Not To Open Mint Roll 2010 Shield Cents

I got a box of 2010 shields cents from the bank and sat on them for a month while deciding what to do with them. Just this weekend I decided to crack the box, keep all the head/tails rolls intact (22) and cherry pick the rest of them (28). I was certain I'd find so many great examples (out of a brand new box, after all) that I'd be giving them away.

Not so. Granted I'm very picky about black spots on zinc cents (I consider it a manufacturing flaw and would rather see light bag marks) and this box is chock full of them. Sure, they all look great at arms length but as soon as you put a loupe to them it's another story.

About a dozen rolls into this so far, I have two (2) examples put aside. And it's not because those 2 were completely spot free either. They were just deemed minimally acceptable after realizing I probably wasn't going to find *any* spot-free examples in this box. So far I've found about 3-4 individual sides that were totally spot-free but asking for 2 of them on the same coin apparently is asking a lot.

So to my experience there's something to look for right off the bat - shield cents without spots. Hopefully my box is the exception rather than the rule, but before you crack that roll you might want to consider how picky you are.

I had the same problem deciding whether to open mint rolls or not thinking that mint rolls would be worth much more in say 10 maybe 15 years. I discussed this with my favorite coin dealer and his reply was...." how much is that wrapper worth"? So in 2009 I unwrapped a roll of 2007 Washington Dollars and there in that roll, on my shelf in my office was 10, yes count em, ten "Godless dollars" that had been sitting there for nearly 2 years. I submitted 5 for grading got one ms-65-two ms-66 and two ms-67. I sold a 65, a 66 and a 67 for $200.00. Had I opened the roll when I got it ( from my bank) I could have at least tripled my selling price.

Have I learned a lesson? No. I still have many unwrapped rolls of different denominations waiting to hear of someone else's major find I guess. There must be something about those wrappers that I haven't figured out yet.

I've got the same question about opening rolls of 2009 LP2s looking for the finger errors. Yea or nay ?

The greater number of these good varieties are found in the two roll sets sold from the mint. The dates on the boxes help to find these better ones when you find them on sale on ebay.