Highest Grade From Rolls

I was looking at an issue of Coin Values and noticed the prices for Lincoln cents , 1981 $60 for a MS-66R . what is the highest grade you could routinely find in a roll you put away 27 years ago , or today for that matter ?
rzage

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

My guess is an MS 64

Ruben

 

The typical roll had only seven or eight die pair represented in it. If there were four coins of a die pair then they'd probably be over only about 5 or 10% of the dies' lives. A bag wasn't much better and most of the coins would be from about fifteen die pair with several oddballs.

This meant that many rolls and bags were simply typical. There'd be no early die states among which most of the highest grades are found. Some years you'd have to look at a lot of bags just to find a nice well made coin and it probably would be marked up. But you never knew when you'd luck out and find a nice die run from new dies. There could even be a couple or three such runs in the same bag. If the bag was lightly handled and the coins weren't torn up at the mint you could find dozens, even hundreds, of gems in a bag. Much depended on the specific date since there was huge variation in production quality and handling damage.

The '81-P was a little better made than most with a good average quality but a lot of trouble with bad surfaces (like all '81 coinage) and they were marked up a little more than most. Basically it was typical.

Mint set quality for the date is abysmal and this might account for a higher price. A lot of the modern gems come from mint sets. The quality in the sets isn't always a lot higher but finding gems is like shooting fish in a barrel compared to driving all over trying to find nice rolls. When you finally found a clean roll coin it was usually poorly made and this wasn't a problem with mint sets.

Very few people were looking at the coins until very recent years. I was told by one bank vault manager that he and several others he called had never heard of anyone looking through quarters for nice specimens or setting any aside at all. This was back in the early '80's. In those days there were a FEW people setting aside cents but they were setting aside vast quantities and usually with no regard to quality.

There were millions of gems made every year but so few people set aside coins that the odds of them being saved were quite tiny. Cents are a little easier and more were saved so it's not as big a problem with them.

 

What? Are you saying a die only makes 20 coins?

 

I would imagine a die could make over ioo,ooo coins at least , I think he was talking about coins you would find in a man made roll .
rzage

I was also thinking MS-67s could be found in modern cent rolls , JMO
rzage

 

I don't know what he's saying. Cladking is brilliant with an encyclopedic knowledge of modern coins, so I read everything he writes, but sometimes he writes things that are incoherent.

This is one of those times. A MS-67 in a new bank roll? That is an awfully clean and well struck coin.


I think what he is saying that 4 random coins in a roll from the same die might have been produced in a continuous window of 15% of the dies life in production, which would be less that random BTW.

Ruben
Ruben

 

I have a roll of 1992-D and a roll of 1993-D Cents in which every coin is absolutely "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"! Most are MS-67 Reds to MS-69 Reds with maybe one or two MS-66 Reds. These don't count as they were hand-picked from rolls and bags.

I have found new Cent rolls from the Bank with quite a few MS-64 to MS-66 Red coins. However, this doesn't seem to be the norm as I have also received new Cent rolls in which most of the coins were absolutely atrocious and grade-wise would be lucky to get a single MS-61/62 out of them!


Frank

 

2005 is the latest year I can find population reports. There are 53 MS67 Lincolns not satin. They going for $13 - $39, so they are not that rare. However, 53 out of billions are not very good odds. My guess is that you might find a few 66's, but I would not hold my breath waiting to find a 67.

 

rlm,

Do you know what the POPs and values of the 1992-D and 1993-D Cents are in at least MS-67 Red? How about MS-69 Red?


Thanks...Frank

 

If you really have any of those 69's inthere,you need to get them slabbed

 

But have you looked at some cents that came from just cracked rolls some look imaculate and well struck , your right I didn't understand what he said either .
rzage

 

I guess my eyes are just getting too bad , still I don't collect modern Lincolns so maybe I'm judging them next to a Morgan dollar , but if you can't see any hits or sratches under 3X mag. shouldn't it grade at least a 66 or 67 .?
rzage

 

I think that was cladkings point. If you got a roll which is populated by coins at the beginning of the life cycle of a die pair then you get a bunch of good coins together. But it is pot luck.

Also, MS 66 and above is very tough to be asked from any coin that hits the hopper and is scooped up with 500 other coins, tossed, and churned, counted and plopped into bags to be later rolled.

Ruben

 

i don't know but my experience is this: Once you get above a MS66 there are NO visible obvious hits, even when blown up in photos, and the strike becomes increasingly an issue of judgment :ie you need a terrific strike.

I don't see how many coins in a roll can make this standard, even in a good roll. Maybe in a BOX of new coins you might find a couple.

The other things though is that I hate the Lincoln design. The best of strikes to me look like worn out junk.

Ruben

 

I have NGC 67's (all wheats) the you can see some nicks without magnification although they are small and you have to catch the light right. Assuming that they are well struck and otherwise attractive, I would think that they should go 67ish.

BTW, I think everything they have done to the Lincoln from 1959 on has been slowly ruining it.

 

rlm,

That is good advice! However, since I am going through a divorce right now, I don't have that kind of money to spend. I guess you could say that these are an investment and since the rolls are sealed tight, the coins should stay pristine. I can't remember the Dates and Mints right now but I also have one roll of Washington Silver Quarters and one roll of Roosevelt Silver Dimes in which the coins are MS-64's to borderline MS-68's which I will probably hold onto for quite a few years. The only downfall to hanging on to the Cents is if a bunch of 1992-D and 1993-D Cents get graded at MS-69's before I decide to sell.


Frank

 

Yes, but only 5 or 10% of the life of the die pair.

The production of a given die pair tends to get separated somehow. It would partially be caused by the way in which coins go through hoppers where the coins in the center go through much faster than those near the edges but I believe there's more to it thabn that.

Modern cent dies striking zinc can easily produce 1,500,000 coins and average over a million now days. Copper wore the dies faster and 750,000 was good for a die.

 

Not Lincolns but..

Just got through looking at 10 rolls of brand new 2008P Jefferson nickels rolled up by Dunbar. Out of 10 rolls I was able to put aside about a dozen coins with good eye appeal and maybe MS60 to MS62 grading.
Also put aside about one roll of AU/BU. All the rest of the coins were beat up pathetic junk.

 

yeah but...MS69's are exceptionally rare in a standard bank roll, or in a 100 bank rolls. And if I'm not mistaken the mint doesn't distribute rolls directly, only bags. Even the rolls from the mint are bagged and shipped to a bank to roll.

Ruben