Do "Unsearched" Coin Lots Really Exist?

Thanks SPP - reminded me of a neighbor I delivered papers to. I used to check every coin someone handed me when I did my weekly collections and she saw me studying the money she handed me. She got nervous thinking she shorted me; I told her not the case and that I was a coin collector checking out the years on the coins. The following week, she invited my brother and me into her home to go through a large hoard of pennies she and her husband tossed into a giant plastic wine bottle (sort of like the giant crayon piggy banks today). The coins were unsearched and akin to CRH, but they had been tossing into that bottle for a long while - TONS of LWCs and many great finds (I found my 1920 Canadian Cent that day). I suspect that's where we snagged the majority of the semi-key/key LWCs we used to fill our album. Right place, right time, good and trusting people.

So if you can find an untouched hoard that accumulated for decades by a non-collector, you might have the prize. Finding one on the internet - I'm suspect.

Absolutely!! Being in Connecticut, we see our share here. I haven't put them in an album yet, but I will do so soon. I've pulled a pile of your cents over the years - wondering what I might have.

YES!
Hoards do exist.
I have a friend who inherited a collection of older silver coins.
He just put them away in a safety deposit box.
Gave me a list to look at to see if there is anything valuable.

Consists of:
130 silver 1872-1967 50c pieces
140 1883-1967 25c pieces
Hundreds of other early pennies, nickels, dimes
and silver dollars.
Complete set of $5.00 & $10.00 Olympic coins
Over 200 early American silver coins.

Have not seen any of the coins in regard to condition but
I figure the silver bullion value at over $2500.
Made him an offer sight unseen but he says he will probably hold on to them for a while.
Problem is, he's in a position that he doesn't need the money.
Says he will give me first chance if he decides to sell them though. Heres hoping.

I bought a couple of "unsearched" lots on ebay earlier this month. It was expensive ($184 for 8 OZ) but I did get a 1889-O Morgan dollar and some BU halves, quarters, and dimes. Highly doubt it was unsearched though.

I guess like most I learned the hard way. Sure there are lots that are untoched and as mentioned are from sellers who never normally sell coins and have aquired a lot by some friend who's relative has passed away. I generally look at the coins on view. If we take it that its an accumulation over time. You would expect to see just about everything in the mix. Lots devoid of silver are searched. No matter what the sales pitch is. Lots where your looking at 1960+ with the teaser coin you can't read because it has been put that way also are searched and probably 4-5 times and then spewed out to gutterbay.I remember a lot with the "My uncle passed away and these were in his attic. Please don't ask what coins are there because I don't know anything about coins. Seller had sales of 0. You could see it was unsearched . Just the depth of coins I could see let alone the ones I couldn't. Like an early 1790's dollar. That looked untouched. I kicked myself as I had just bought an 18kg lot of unsearched(LIES) worse lot I have ever bought in my life. 90% QEII 1/2 and 1 penny 1960's. I pretty much know now what to look for. Sometimes it takes a while but patience is the key. I did snaffle a 100 mils palestine 1933 in VF. Which I sold on for £100 on a £25 mix bag. So there are bits out there. Always nice because it makes up for mainly disappointments

I've seen two unsearched lots in my lifetime. My aunt used to throw all her Lincolns into jars and had a shelf full of wheaties. She was just a copper hoarder and had never looked at any of them for numismatic value. Alas, due to family politics, I'll never get the opportunity to look through them.

The second was a truly remarkable stash of silver. There was an older woman who died about 18 months ago. Her life insurance/annuity agent, Bill, is a good friend of mine, and an avid collector. He helped the family settle the estate, include 5 leather purses they found in the basement filled with silver that she had saved from her job at Woolworth's over a 50 year career. They didn't even bother to count the dimes, there were so many. The 3 kids divided them by weight. Bill separated out the quarters and halves and told them what key dates to look for. He personally went through the silver dollars and found the holy grail - an 1893 S. If I remember right, it graded out at VG8 and he ended up buying it from the estate. There were some other semi-key Morgans and a few real Trade dollars as well.

I bought a genuinely unsearched lot at a leading public aiction recentlty.
I was the successful bidder at $300. Total paid with buyer's commission was $352.50.
The lot comprised 103 Islamic and Indian silver coins (ALL silver). Works out at at an average of $AUD 3.42 per coin. Average condition VF. Total weight of the lot was a bit over 400 grammes.

That is much better than dealers' junk box prices.

The reason given by the Cataloguer why the lot was unsearched,
was that while he could readily identify a few of them, it did not make much commercial sense to take the time to identify all of them, and sell them in smaller lots, or individually.

As the buyer, I am going to have a lot of fun, perhaps over the rest of my life, doing the job that the cataloguer did not do. If I fully identify all of them, the total value of the lot would perhaps be over $2,000.

I have some work to do, but I have already made some useful progress.