Lately on I'm seeing a lot of sellers on eBay selling older "unsearched" coins such as wheat cents and Buffalo nickels in modern machine-wrapped paper rolls (you know, the ones with crimped ends on both sides). This is apparently the new scam for trying to pass off coins as "unsearched". What I want to know is, where are these dealers getting the capablility to machine-wrap their own coins? Don't those coin wrapping machines cost tens of thousands of dollars?
No, you can get machines that crimp the ends for much less than that. You can also do the precrimped rolls by hand with a little plastic thingy. My grandmother used those, and they come out pretty decent. Look at this video: http://www.semacon.com/Crimper_Demo.MPG
Finding a roll of unsearched wheats is about as likely as not winning the Internet lottery this week.
small hand-held end rollers can be purchased for about $25. You wouldn't have to overprice too many rolls to make some profit with them.
I've seen plastic bags full of paper rolls for coins already rolled with only the ends open. I think there was a hundred for a few dollars. Maybe less. As to unsearched coins. THINK. How would anyone know all the coins are wheat back coins if you didn't search them? You have to look at each coin just to see if it's a wheat back don't you? I really like the adds that say all cents are unsearched wheat backs in the 40's. HOW DO THEY KNOW? Do you think maybe they are telling a slight fib?
XpipedreamR, thanks for the information about the inexpensive coin roll crimper machine. I never knew about that. I'm tempted to buy one now just for the fun of it longnine009, believe it or not, you can still find some unsearched coins out there. One time I was lucky enough to purchase some unsearched wheat cents at my local coin store. How do I know they were truly unsearched? Because I found a 1909-S and a 1914-D in the same bag! (not to mention a number of other better dates too, that no one in their right mind would leave behind!) And yes, there were a few memorial cents in there... but that was a tell-tale sign that this batch of coins was really unsearched. From my experience, TRULY unsearched coins will almost always have a few coins that don't "belong" in the bunch. Just Carl, I agree with your comment. I always get a good laugh when I see a dealer advertising something like "Bag of mixed wheat cents, 1909-1958, VG to XF, guaranteed unsearched." How could they POSSIBLY claim to know the dates and conditions of all the coins if they didn't search them?
rbf; here is a crimping device that won't cost you an arm and a leg. See what you think: Just click HERE
cheaper than I remembered. What I've been told is that it takes a little practice to get the twisting speed and pressure right, but that once you do they are indistinguishable from machine wrapped rolls.
