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 Replies: 31 / Views: 7,129 |
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New Member
United States
2 Posts |
I recently inherited a coin collection from an uncle who had been collecting coins as far back as I can remember. Part of his collection included various old unopened coin rolls. I'm new to coin collecting, so I haven't decided whether I'm going to sell the collection or keep it, but my question is specific to the old coin rolls. Do you think it's better to leave the coin rolls unopened, or open and search through them for rare coins? I realize there is a chance the rolls won't have anything rare, but do unopened rolls sell at a premium over the coins in the rolls if they aren't rare? Here is a description of the rolls: 1) Two $2 rolls of nickels. One has a 1924 Buffalo nickel and 1943 Jefferson nickel on the end. The other has a 1920 Buffalo nickel and the reverse of a Buffalo nickel with a "D" at the bottom. 2) 50 cent roll of pennies. Ends of the roll shows two Indian Heads (1894 and 1904). 3) Two $3 rolls of dimes. One has a 1927 dime and a reverse of another dime with an "S". The other has a 1954 dime and a 1950 dime. 4) One $5 roll of quarters. Ends of the roll show a 1956 quarter and the other is a reverse of another quarter with a "D" at the bottom Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2368 Posts |
 Open them! A rare coin will sell for much more than a few unsearched rolls! Curiosity alone makes opening them a good decision. When you do,  I can give you a value estimate. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2368 Posts |
Also, if I were you, I would keep them. Sentimental value, and the fact that this huge amount of antique coins would take years to find from rolls. Keep them, they are very cool and special.
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
11922 Posts |
I would open them in a Hart beat... the suspense would be killing me.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3167 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
201 Posts |
Open them...you can always take the Holy Grails, fill in the holes and resell them on the Bay as unsearched rolls....like everyone else.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2368 Posts |
On another note, if you choose to open them, be reasonably optimistic. You don't know if each roll is filled with Brilliant Uncirculated key dates and mint errors, or Chuck E. Cheese tokens. It is usually somewhere in between if you know what I'm saying. But if you open them and they are just Chuck E. Cheese tokens, its definitely better than if you sold them on ebay like that. That would really ruin your seller ratings...  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
4078 Posts |
CB, in saying this, Quote:
Part of his collection included various old unopened coin rolls. Would mean to me he collected various coins he thought would have value in that type. There could be some interesting coins in them! Before you sell it would be for your advantage to go through each roll. Buy a " Red Book" to give you an idea if, you have something of value.  with the post above. Open them. Good luck Forgot to say to CCF Edited by bpoc1
11/03/2013 5:29 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I myself would open them. Although I too and sentimental about saving thinss from the past, however, just how long can you save something? For an example I saved separate photo albums of my god child. Recently I started to thin things out a bit so I offered her and/or her parents those albums. They both said we have enough photos, dump them. One of my old cars was admired by a relative for years and again, trying to thin things out, I gave it to him. It lasted one week. Completely totaled. As to your rolls of coins. You could save them for a long time, then some day they would go to another relative. That relative may well just take them to a bank and dump them. Or you could open them and find they all have corrosion on them. Or someone could steal them from you. Why worry. Just open them now. A single coin could be a momento of someone in the past but a roll? Not likely. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
726 Posts |
I say open them.......Yu say the one had certain 5c on top and different year underside....so they are mixed...so open them ....This one is famous in old days that they may even look unopenned but if old proably were openned before....Happy Hunting..
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7617 Posts |
If they were BU rolls I'd keep them unopened.
Since they are circs I'd just open them and see what is there.
I bet you end up common date coins for the era they were wrapped up in.
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
"Old" is relative; it's very likely that your relative created them himself. I sincerely doubt he didn't know their contents. Open them.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1088 Posts |
I would most definitely open them. Like others have said, if there is a rare coin or key day, it would be worth much more than the unopened roll.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19942 Posts |
Welcome to CC! I'm with the others, I would open them and make sure there are no key date coins or conditional rarities. Most likely, the coins in the rolls will be fairly common stuff....but you don't know for sure until you inspect the contents. Get yourself a Red Book to guide you and look up every coin. |
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Valued Member
United States
315 Posts |
If you want to sell them with minimum hassle, unsearched rolls on ebay is the fastest. If you are hoping for a one in a million coin, but know that the vast majority are common, open it. If I was going to keep them I would open them. If I don't want them, I would sell them as a roll. To be realistic, a double die is roughly 200-500x the value of a common. I've searched enough rolls to know how hard it is to find one. I'd say the odds are worse than 1 in 100k. On the better finds, eg double mint mark, missing mint mark, etc, its even higher. |
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Moderator
United States
56855 Posts |
to CCF.I say open them and look for rare dates and mint marks as well as errors and varieties and of course post pics Also keep any that are high grade for the date and handle them with care.Don't clean them either.Good luck.I also think you should keep some if not all for sentimental reasons. John1  |
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Replies: 31 / Views: 7,129 |
Posted 11/03/2013 1:44 pm
