I won one of these auctions recently, and wanted to get the opinion of those in the know. This looked like an opportunity for a truly unsearched roll with the potential for high-grade coins. The seller is not a coin seller; he's obviously a military guy. The rolls look legit. I got the roll(and it is a beautiful roll-I'm speaking literally about the roll itself) and it sure seemed sealed, but not even one au coin in the bunch. It was a better roll than you typically get on Ebay and a nice mix of dates, but I expected some shiny red stuff! My question to those who would know is this-When opening a roll of pennies that was truly rolled when wheats were the cent of the day, couldn't you reasonably expect to get several au-bu cents out of it? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360189206214&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
I don't know but today you can still get some nice ones reds from the 70's and earlier. I think the value in them was from the historical perspective not the actual coinage.
Hullcoins- That's what I'm talking about. I can walk into a bank today and ask for a roll and likely get more reds than browns out of it. Seems like that would have been the case back then as well. Granted it does have historical value, but just how much if someone has searched the rolls and taken out the good stuff. And I'm not even saying the seller searched them, but what I want to know is how likely is it that someone at some point searched them given that there wasn't a single rd au cent in a roll from that era?
Pennies actually circulated back then. A 20 year old penny would be nearly worn out - good to fine at best. You would be much less likely to get AU/BU coins in rolls. By 1955, finding AU coins from the 40's was very difficult. Finding a roll with no coins with any red would surprise me, but I am sure it happened. I would venture a guess that the odds of finding a truly unsearched roll of wheat to be about the same as finding such a roll with no AU coins.
Last year I purchased a roll of 1956's and they all were BU red. The year before I got 1958's, the same thing, BU red. I don't see how you can get circulated coins out of an original sealed roll. Oh yea, e-bay.
The story was very interesting and may have given the pennies more value if they remained in the waxed rolls. Of course, it is easy to say that now that you've opened them and found few or no gems. Also, I'm an old Navy guy and any ship story brings a tear to my eyes.
I believe I saw those rolls on Ebay myself seems they found them and they were wax sealed to protect them from the elements of the ocean. If we are thinking of the same ones i started to buy one to keep original as is, but new curiousity would do me in. Sorry the coins were not what you expected but the rolls themselves were the real prize. JMHO
Search for OBW, or original bank wrapped rolls, I have Search for OBW, or original bank wrapped rolls here on CoinTalk, I have written a great deal about these.
