Some people like to search rolls. I prefer to search bags. Truthfully, not all of them contained coins. The dollar bags on the far right, the nickel bags on the far left and the large half dollar bags in the middle had never been used. Several years ago, the Mint was selling them on their website. Actually, I prefer to search the bags of a single date/mm instead of rolls or Mint Sets. I find just as many higher grade circulation strikes in them, and if you should find a variety or error, you can almost be assured there will be others like it. Chris
Unless you're referring to that missing Clad layer 2001 Kennedy you found. I went through about 6 bags of those coins and only found about 4 of the severely cracked Kennedy Half's. Nothing else really to speak of. Personally, I do prefer bags over rolls.
A couple of those older bags might well be worth some serious cash. Some Morgan bags (yes empty ones) are selling for over $1000 each.
The Kennedy missing the clad layer came from a $100 Mixed P&D bag which the Mint released in 2004. One other was found by someone else in one of the same bags, but it would be doubtful that too many slipped by unless they happened to be "obverse up". The nice thing was that it only costed 68c. Rolls cost considerably more. I also got one MS68 out of this bag, and to date, it remains a Top Pop along with 4 others. When I searched the $250 bag of 2007-P Sacagawea, I ended up with 14 MS68 & 38 MS67 circulation strikes and the cost for them was only $1.26 each. The $50 bag of 1980 Lincoln cents produced 228 "Y" clashes and dozens of strikethrough's. Four of the $25 bags (2-P & 2-D) of 2005 CA SQ's produced 6 pairs of MS68 P&D and 21 pairs of MS67 P&D. I'll search bags any day over rolls or Mint Sets, but I will never, never, never ever search another $50 bag of Lincoln cents. It took me 4-1/2 years and gave me plenty of migraine headaches. Chris
Thats pretty cool, I never thought about collecting the bags and when I read the first post I was thinking about searching some Morgan dollar bags. That is until I read Doug's post...
Before I retired off the NYS Bridge Authority and before they went to plastic bags for the coins, I use to put aside any "odd" looking canvas bags like some National banks and some federal banks like San Fran, and any different ones. I also found lots of loose change in the bags because someone didn't check the bags for money stuck in the seams. That was 10 years ago.
I bought a new one from the mint a while back for hauling years worth of change to the bank. They don't promise you which one you'll get. I got one that's supposed to hold 2000 $1. They are tough. I like those old ones. Pretty cool.
