Obtaining Business Strikes

Going through bank rolls is definitely the cheapest way of doing it. Only the rolls of quarters, halves, and dollars are available for direct order from the Mint although the Louisiana Purchase series nickels were available by roll and bag. If you have a coin shop in your area, the dealer might have cherrypicked some nicer business strikes for each year to put in a case. Some dealers carry a full line of moderns, but some do not bother at all since the profit margin is low- expect to pay 2-3x face or more for the convenience factor. The asiest way to do it until 2005 was to purchase the Mint sets since they were business strikes. Of course, in 2005 they went to the satin finish so no more business strikes.

The local dealer I use keeps rolls of BU business strikes and sells them individually for a minimal markup. For example, I was able to get the State Quarters my wife needed for her set for $.50 cents each. The other way is to trade with folks who have what you need on this board once you get 50 posts.