Does anyone know if there are ways, which I'm sure there are, to roll coins and make them look like original bank rolls? I like to collect wheat pennies but don't buy the "never been searched, I don't have the time..." type lines. No reason to collect coins, be a power seller on Ebay, and not take the time to sort through a few hundred coins to find a couple worth over $1000...just my opinion. So I'm wondering if all the one's advertised as being "originally bank wrapped" are true. What do you all think?
maybe look for that aged look, like this http://cgi.ebay.com/5-ROLLS-1960-D-...58QQihZ016QQcategoryZ3358QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem it would be hard to fake that
Yes but be aware, that even though they are aged, it is easy to open one end dump the coins, search them, and reinsert the coins and roll the ends once again, while there will be evidence of "tampering" it can look pretty convincing... Just be very wary...
What about something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/100-Rolls-Bank-...9QQihZ016QQcategoryZ11944QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Nope... hogwash in my opinion... New wrappers + old coins = searched 99.9% of the time... Maybe find a cull key with a few cull better dates and a BUNCH of common dates... Just not worth it in my opinion.
Check his negative feedback. Most complain about poor condition of coins, all dates in the 40's and 50's, etc. I wouldn't bother.
For some reason, I keep running into the guy who is doing the "unsearched" rolls you gave a link to. Hmmm. Let's see. College student that doesn't have time to go through the coins. Let's see, he's sold over 340 auctions this past month and then of course, he needs to get the "unsearched" stuff - seems like everything he gets is unsearched. Must have great "estate" sales in his part of the world. If you check out his feedback, he is now selling gold scraps from when he tried to pan for gold!!! (Ebay item#260121273511) That's another hint. Check their feedback and see what they're selling.
Call your local dealer, these things trade by the bag (5000 coins) between dealers for about $200 per bag. If you pay too much more than that you are paying for hype and not strictly the coins.
If I wanted bulk wheat cents, I would buy those "grab bags" from large, reputable coin companies. They won't be unsearched, but in my little, dream-like world, I assume they throw a few nicer dates/mintmarks into the grab-bag to make sure you're satisfied. And you'll probably get as good a mix as anywhere else. I guess I assume they want you to come back for more business.
I don't know if we're allowed to drop websites but I do a lot of business with one company where I buy them by the pound, usually 15-20lbs at a time and, like you said, I always get a 1909 VDB and plenty of teens, twenties, a lot of thirties, and a majority of 40s-50s with all three mint marks. I guess I'll stick with them...I know I'll never find the "Money" coins, but it's a lot of fun to search through so many and know you'll at least find a few that are worth something. I have found quite a few that seem to have a lot of errors on them (blobs, an incomplete "R" in Liberty, BIE, double rims, etc.) The only problem is I don't know which mistakes are common and worthless and which ones are worth holding onto. Can anyone recommend the best book available that distinguishes between these? I'm fairly new to collecting, have a boat load of coins, and just ordered a bunch of supplies to help my searching but I need to know what to look for.
Orginal bank rolls are easily faked. There is a market out there for original paper rolls (that have never been used but they looked well aged). I've seen stacks of them from time to time at fleamarkets. I found a box of penny rolls at a Dallas site 3 weeks ago. The where from a bank branch in Illinois. Once rolled, they would look just like the pics from the ebay auction a few posts up from this one. There is no way to tell "when" they were rolled. It's far to easy to take your searched wheats and roll them in these vintage wrappers and sell them as "original bank rolls." Technically, thats not a lie BUT it wasn't the "bank" that rolled them.
I once bought 100 wheat cents on ebay off of an orchid dealer (checked their previous sales). They didn't have a single coin sale in their history as far back as I could search. The price wasn't bad, and I figured that they may have been searched, but hopefully they wouldn't all be 1956D. Turns out that out of 100 wheats, there was one from the teens, about 4 from the 20s, and 6 from the 30s, including an S mint. To top it all off, there was an old Indian Head Cent in there as well. I'd say it went well. Moral of the story - if they don't sell wheat cents all the time, you just might have a little better luck, but still, YMMV.
get a book called "the cherrypickers' guide" there are two copies out that i am aware of. i'm sure amazon would have them both, one covers cents etc. again amazon will tell you which copy covers what. grizz
Depends if you about 10 seconds to spare or not.... Check this out: http://www.semacon.com/Crimper_Demo.MPG Although I'm sure these machines are not cheap, but it will sure make you think twice when you see an 'Original Bank Roll' on ebay. Actually, found the price for that one, $425. You can google 'coin crimpers' to see more...
