Where Do They Get Them?

Throughout the years, I don't see anything that is possibly unsearched. At least not by the rolls.
Rolls are tough, because you have to assume any roll HAS been searched, extra coins sent to the Federal Reserve Banks or third party rollers and re-rolled.

It really depends on what TYPE of coins you want to search, and IF your searching for just High Quality Mint State Coins or, Varieties. There is NOT an all-inclusive warehouse of deals for every type of coin anywhere. It depends on the seller on the other end. The seller may be into pennies, dimes and Morgan dollars and may search those, but could care less about anything else.

It also depends on how much your willing to pay per roll. Its NOT a matter of "paying more will get you more". Sometimes its just the opposite of that. I have puchased some rolls for less than 3.00 each and got some real winners.

Don't forget about your local banks. Be EXTREMELY polite and courteous to the tellers, Tell them you are a coin collector and your looking to get penny boxes or rolls of a particular coin on a semi-regular basis. DO NOT push your luck and request too many at one time. Pick up ALL that you have ordered. Ask the bank if once you search the rolls/ boxes, if they would like them back, or not. Some will say No, and I take them to Coinstar and deal with them that way. I've seen too many people push bank at banks, and find themselves outside looking in, losing a sweet deal.

Any site, anywhere a "shotgun roll" that has been damaged on the ends - either end - should be scrutinized. I am a reseller of the NF String brand coin rollers and equipment, and it could be extremely easy to reroll any old bank roll if it is carefully opened. The only additional suggestions I can give are;

1. If you go through COIN DEALERS on ebay, look for the ones with the "PNG" designation. Those individuals are supposed to have a higher level of customer care and higher ethics.

2. If you want to look for coins on ebay, look for people who DO NOT specifically sell coins. You might be able to find a small antique shop, thift store or whatever that might occasionally sell rolls that are unsearched - BEWARNED - these people usually don't have a clue when it comes to quality, so you may get crappy coins, or extremely good coins - or both - with a slightly higher possibility that thy have been unsearched.

3. Flea markets - most want to dump what they have, and many have no idea what they have, especially if they sell a mix of merchandise.

It is absolutely, 100% down to luck. You just have to be in the right place when you stumble across a roll that has been sitting unopened for decades. A few examples:

- I once got a box of CWR nickels from the bank that had a mix of brand new and "old" looking wrappers. The "old" wrappers each had multiple BU 2012 nickels. Some of the "new" wrappers turned out to be a collection dump: 5 solid rolls of circulated 1938-1962. Clearly, you can never make assumptions about the external appearance of a roll.

- My wife's grandmother passed away a couple years ago, and left her coin collection to each of her grandchildren. We got a roll of quarters from a local credit union, circa 1970s. Solid AU/BU clad bicentennial quarters.

- I read a story about a car collector who purchased a Model-T that had been sitting in a garage since the late 1940s, and found a roll of pennies under one of the seats. Turned out to be a time capsule of cents that were in circulation when the car was parked there.

- An older member on another forum once recalled going into a credit union back in the 70s and asked for a bag of cents from "way in the back". He said the bag had apparently been sitting there since the 1940s, and was roughly 10% Indian Head cents.

- I once put together 6 rolls of 1964 P&D nickels, carried them around in my pocket to "age" them, labeled them with a sharpie, and spent them. Just to see the world burn.

Since most modern banks do not follow the "last in, first out" inventory philosophy, the odds of reliably finding anything of note at a bank are abysmally poor. Likewise with rolled coins of any type--rolling coins is generally the final step before taking the coins to a store or bank. Your best bet would be to find an elderly person with a very large coin jar... those seem to turn up the best finds.

Finn, your story about he six rolls of nickels is hilarious! Devious! ;-)

WOW! Look at those pennies! That's what I'm talking about! But how do you find a situation like that? I see on craigslist people put wanted ads out. "I'll buy your coins" kinda things. Does doing that work? Anyone here try that before?

All on ebay have been searched. Don't let those sellers fool you.

While it isn't the wisest move to ship a water damaged bag, it's hard to be upset with a place that gives you a full refund and tells you to keep it.