I know this will seem like nothing to most people here, but I'm a newbie so this is exciting for me...91 1909s in a bag of 1,100 coins!
I took a huge chance and spent $75 (including s/h) for a bag of 1,100+ wheats. Prior to this I hadn't paid more than $.05 per cent (which is the highest amount I figured I could spend and know I'd be able to make back my entire investment when I sell them after cherrypicking
) I kind of had a gut feeling that this would be a good group of coins because the seller listed a bunch of coin auctions all at once and from the looks of her listings she had no clue what she was selling...seemed like she was just selling off grandpa's coin jar or something.
The coins arrived today (broken jar and all
) and it was a strange mix. There was a strong concentration in 1956, 1936, 1937, and 1909 coins...the rest of the mix was typical, but those four years probably accounted for 50% of the 1100 coins (all I can think of is maybe 36, 37, and 56 are the birth years of the parents and a child?). In addition to the 1909s, I found very nice 1915D, 1931, and 1931D coins, plus some upgrades for some other coins in my book. Rolls of 1909-only coins are selling for about $150 shipped on
ebay, so between the 91 1909s and the other 1,000 wheats, I should be able to more than quadruple my investment...plus I got to cherrypick the good ones to keep.
Now on to all of my questions because I'm a clueless newbie to coin collecting!
I need a little help with determining the condition of the 1909 cents. Most of them are fairly worn, but there are none where you have to use a magnifying glass in order to determine the date. The dates are all clear. So that would make them all in at least "good" condition, right?
Where it gets hard for me is determining the condition of the "better" coins (none are great, but some are better than others). There are a handful of coins which look like the one in these pics. They are the best of the bunch. Can you give me any indication of what it would rate (I would guess F or VF, but I'm just not sure).
Next question...I didn't see any S mints or VDBs in the bunch, with two possible exceptions. Both coins are in such bad shape that they wouldn't be worth anything even if they were, but I don't have any S mints or VDBs in my book, so a bad coin is better than nothing at this point! The coin in the first two pics below looks like it might be a VDB, but the coin is crushed so I can't really tell if it was a VDB or just crush marks that I'm seeing. The coin in the second two pics below has a rough spot right where the S mint would be. The coin is in such horrible condition that I just can't tell if it's a mint mark or not. I don't think it is, but I figured I'd let all you experts take a look.
Sorry for all the newbie questions. You've all been so helpful here. I've learned more on this site than anywhere else on the web! Thanks in advance!
Posted 12/31/2007 10:02 pm
