We've all seen them -- "Coins of the Twentieth Century", "Coinage of World War II", "Vanishing Coins of Yesteryear", yadda, yadda, yadda. Cardboard templates with text, images, or faux woodgrain textures printed on them, enclosed in a plastic snap-case or even framed behind glass. Littleton and the like crank out the little plastic ones by the millions, it seems, and fill them with heavily circulated common dates that would be hard to sell otherwise. I think the larger ones are usually sold empty, and filled by collectors of all sorts. They're often filled with coins that we would call "cleaned, polished, AG details", and the seller calls "shinny". Sometimes, though, you'll come across one that has some better coins in it. They're still likely to be cleaned or otherwise troubled, and often unattractively toned, because the cardboard usually isn't low-sulfur. I came across this set last year on eBay, and it's taken me a long time to get around to doing something with it. This isn't the original photo, but it's comparable in detail to the one I was looking at when I set my bid. The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this was that many of the coins were showing significant detail, and they weren't all the ones I expected. I particularly zeroed in on that Barber half, although I was pretty sure it would be another polished F-details 1894-S (a surprisingly common date). I was still pretty sure that everything would turn out to be cleaned, but based on the closing prices I'd seen for high-details Barber halves and SLQs, I decided to bid pretty aggressively. When I got the set, I quickly determined that: 1) Yes, most of the coins (except for the low-grade and post-1960 stuff) had been cleaned. Not brutally, but more than enough to be ungradeable. 2) The details on the Barber half and SLQ were very high indeed. 3) Those two coins in particular, and a few of the others, had picked up some pretty psychedelic toning from the cardboard backing. Most of the stuff isn't very interesting. That Walker might have started out uncirculated, but it's cleaned. So are the dollars and the Franklin. I'm not sure about the Buffalo, but it's a common date. Nothing especially interesting in the cents, other nickels, or dimes. But here's the Barber half. (I hope -- my browser's acting up and showing a corrupt image, but I think it's just the browser. Let me know if the obverse image looks corrupt for you.) And here's the SLQ: Both the half and the quarter are hairlined. But the half doesn't show much wear, and I can't see any on the quarter -- not even on the kneecap, never mind the shield or head. The SLQ has plenty of luster on both faces. So, has anybody else found upside surprises in a display like this? If so, post them here...
Very nice pick-up. That is a fantastic SLQ. In my limited knowledge of these things, I would say it is a candidate for slabbing. I would gladly give you melt for the SLQ
Ive looked at these when I see them for sale and often your right, they contain nothing but cleaned or worn common coins. So I've stayed away from them unless they are priced for their silver content as junk silver. Sometimes you get lucky though. I took a shot awhile back on a Kennedy Half framed set that had bad pictures, but the price was actually under silver melt so I didn't mind doing so. The coins were actually in great shape so I was really surprised. Some of them did have some wild toning though but that can be marketable because they are very unique. I don't particularly collect Kennedy halves, other than having some for their silver content. I'm not at home right now or I'd post some pictures. I'll pull them out and put some pictures up when I get the chance. I actually also just bought one of those books containing the coins and stamps of the years of world war 2. Has a half, quarter, dime, nickel and penny for each year from 1942 to 1945. The pictures weren't the greatest but seemed to possibly have potential condition wise. Of course they are common years. I paid almost 41 dollars with shipping for them so even if they are cleaned it won't be an issue since the silver is currently worth more than that. They are still enroute to me so I haven't received them yet. Nice pickup on the SLQ!
It's a better-than-average set, but I also paid more than the average price. I'm pretty sure the SLQ would not grade cleanly, but I was pretty sure of the same thing for the last (and only) one I submitted, and I was wrong. I'll see if I can get some pictures that more clearly show the hairlines I'm seeing. They may be market acceptable for this date, but based on the way the rest of the coins in the set were treated, I'm pessimistic. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Still hoping to see some other presentation-set finds...
Received my world war 2 coin and stamp book today and here is a couple preliminary pictures. I'm impressed with the condition of them, turned out much better than I expected. Better pictures of the coins to follow.
I would think that a single airtite page from the CAPS coin album system would do the job just as well, but the coins would be in airtites, so no scratches or ugly toning caused by sulfurous paper. Just put a frame around it, and voila. It could even be a frame that you can "flip over" to view the obverses of the coins...
Those are some of the coins that came in the piece. Sorry if that's too many pictures I tried to get a deceit amount of them. Last pictured cent looks like it has a minor error with a greased filled die. All the coins fit together in a sleeve by years and into their respective pages. Overall a really nice book.
And then there are displays like this one -- a Capital display, stocked with someone's best effort to find nice uncirculated examples. It's possible that those Barbers are actually uncirculated, or at least AU, although I suspect some cleaning. Unfortunately, the seller seems to have a very high opinion of the coins as well, and at $1350 it doesn't look like much of a bargain.
