Help! Unsealed, Original Bank Bag Of Unc 1955 S Pennies

Another option would be to consign the bag to Bobby and Susan here at CC. They are well respected sellers of consigned coins. They have experience selling this very thing. Even though you have to pay a consignment fee, they will likely fetch the most money as opposed to selling it yourself since they are very well known coin sellers. You also have the advantage of a "no hassle" sale....ship it to them and let them do the work.

EDIT: Click on the COIN CONSIGNMENT link on the left toolbar. With something like this, you may also be able to negotiate a lower consignment fee.

Just an odd ball thought at 5 am, How about something like Bowers and Marena or Stacks or David Lawrence Auction house. Some place that could
advertise the sale and create interest. Something like that does not come along very often unopened. and would create quite a buzz in the community. Just my half awake opinion

Stew

I thought I did that? LOL

EDIT - I just reread, it's 100 rolls total, right? I was thinking it was 200 rolls. For 100 rolls:

low = $1800 ($18 per roll)
high = $3000 ($30 per roll)

wheezydog asks:


Earlier, 00jules said:

I think it is a bit "optimistic" to think that a major auction house would be interested in something like this. Remember, it is essentially just a BU bag of a relatively common coin with a mintage of 44.6 million. A couple hundred rolls should not affect the market value in any way because it would represent a small portion of a coin that had seen significant savings since it was the last San Francisco wheat ear. If you had a bag of 1931-S cents, then that would get the attention of some major players but it would also affect the whole market for that coin. Of course, the 1931-S is considerably rarer than the 1955-S.

It is also unfortunate that it is not a bag of 1955-P cents because there was a particularly famous doubled die produced that year in Philly. A bag of those would have buyers foaming at the mouth and dreaming of DDOs- the price realized would probably be considerably high. 1955-S was a relatively quite issue for varieties with only 13 listed at coppercoins.com. Still, buyers will pay a nice premium for any original bag of wheat cents just for the opportunity to look for varieties. I imagine that any offers from dealers in your area would be low-ball as most would not have the means to market the rolls individually.

Since you stated that you are not a collector, then I am sure you do not have the appropriate numismatic-related feedback on ebay to maximize your closing price. Consigning with someone, whether it be the forum owners or another Ebay-approved consignment dealer, will probably be the best way to get the best price. Another option would be a private treaty sale to an individual who would know the market for something like this. The one name that comes to mind would be Coppercoins, aka Charles Daughtrey, a renowned expert and author on Lincoln cents and a forum member here. I am sure he has a few original bags of wheaties sitting around BTW, that is his website that I referenced earlier.

I say leave the bag sealed and unopened. Anything originally sealed is going to bring a premium over something that has been opened because as soon as its opened there are no guarantees that the coins haven't been searched through (which is a huge thing with variety collectors). I haven't read any of the posts here because I usually just read the op's post and then give a comment so I am not swayed by any comment from any other member. If someone was to tell you to unseal the bag and sell individually its probably because of the way they purchase coins themselves instead of looking at it as a sealed bag from 1955 (but believe me there are plenty of collectors that can and will pay a premium for sealed bags of coins) and they only buy in small quantity but if it were mine I would leave it sealed and sell it as a whole. Selling each roll would also take allot longer to do but the real reason I say I would leave it sealed is because there probably aren't very many still sealed from 1955 and that in itself makes it worth more and each time another bags seal is broken on another bag of 1955 Cents it makes yours that much more valuable

1. Original material is not rolled. Nobody would buy it as a 'sealed' bag.
2. Bid and ask is for sealed rolls. They are what they are.
3. No auction house would be interested in them.
4. Their value would be $24 per roll ($2,400) plus a little premium for the bag.
5. It would be easier to sell them roll at a time.
6. It is unlikely that you will get any premium for them being 'unsearched' - there is only one valuable RPM and no doubled dies known, and high grade examples are common.

Best bet is to see if anyone wants to buy all 100 rolls. If no takers, sell them one at a time. There would not be any difference in value that would counteract the difference in shipping cost of sending 100 small packages versus one large package.

And yes...a 1955P mint sealed bag would be valued considerably higher than a 1955S mint sealed bag (which this is not).

The difference between mint sealed and bank sealed (which this one is) is that there's at least a chance of receiving a number of errors in a mint sealed bag. Because they were counted and rolled by a machine at a bank, the chance of finding valuable errors is considerably less in a bank sealed bag. Mint sealed bags of coins have never been through rolling machines, so finding deformed errors is still very possible.