I purchased a 1960-D "Original (supposedly) Bank Wrapped Franklin Roll" on-line. The coins are wrapped in a very poor quality brown paper and wrapped very poorly/loosely. The paper has a stamp of the company who wrapped it. The end coins are beyond recognition due to tarnishing/toning. I paid $20 extra for an original bank wrapped roll and was advised not to open it as it will loose the value once opened! I was thinking of opening the roll and transferring the coins to a tube, to protect them from further tarnishing/toning, and to examine other coins in the roll. What would you do? Thanks! Al
If someone told me don't open it or it'll lose its value, I'd open it so quik to see if I've just got taken. Besides that, one coin in that roll could be worth more than the entire roll. You'll never know if its if you don't check...
I opened the roll and found them all to be bright uncirculated! The reverse of the two end coins are also of excellent quality! The bell lines are weak but visible. Thanks for helping me make the decision! My concern is if the tube I have has PVC....
Most all of the "OLD" Original rolls of coins, come in brown paper wrappers. Even though the 1960D is a high mintage (12,215,812) dealers sometimes complain of trouble getting enough good rolls to satisfy the demand! Last time I checked on Ebay, they were going for around $165.
Two weeks ago I stopped at a bank and found 2 such rolls of 1964 Kennedys. When I got them home, I opened them and the edges were tarnished from the paper, and the two end coins were also very brown. But the reverse of those two coins and the rest of the roll were MS. Not bad for a $20 buck investment.... I transfered them to tubes because the ends were just folded over so it didn't look like a bank wrapped roll and it will protect them better.
No. Essentially he paid $20 to look at an OBW roll of coins as a form of a collecting entertainment. Its what we do. I pay $14 to go to the movies (two tickets) and throw another $20 on that for hot dogs and soda. IMO, $20 is cheap entertainment which could also prove to be very rewarding! I would never buy a roll of coins without opening them because to me that is the true waste of money. I buy coins to look at and possibly have in my collection. I do not buy rolls of coins as investment tools or speculation vehicles.
I bought a 1955 roll in a brown wrapper years ago. Paid 2X face. Every coin was the Bugs Bunny clash. The sad part was that none will grade better than MS-63 and none have full lines. I had one graded in the early days of PCI, bought a raw one to keep the roll complete but they are all still in 2x2s today. Probably could have sold them one at a time and done well.
Here is the obverse of the two end coins in the OBW rolls. As you can see, the boys have been playing in dirt. I am thinking of giving them an acetone bath. Would you clean them up a little? http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm9/alhas/1960FranklinObverse.jpg With all the dirt on the obverse, the reverse does not look too bad: http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm9/alhas/1960FranklinReverse.jpg I would appreciate your thoughts about cleaning.....
I would give those a bath in acetone and see how they come out. Don't mess with the rest of the roll at this point.