Hello All, I have a question that has been bugging me for a couple weeks. I have been looking on ebay at people selling 2004 and 2005 nickel rolls still in the white mint boxes. It seems like atleast 50% of the sellers claim their boxes of nickels are "FIRST STRIKES." They usually have a picture of the side of their boxes. I see on the side on the box that there is a barcode and a product code which is located above the barcode. But, to the right of the barcode are three(3) numbers, one on top of the other. On the bottom is the (1) date, on top of the date is the (2) time, and on top of the time is a FOUR digit number. What is that number? Because some people are selling boxes with later dates than others as "FIRST STRIKES" and getting way more money for them. Stating that 0000 number on top of the time is production number. I have boxes with 0000 and others with a number that is 3###. Someone please set me straight on what those numbers mean. I also have a second question. I have peace medal nickel rolls that don't have the barcode printed on the white box, they have a sticker with a barcode. They don't have the three numbers to the right of the barcode like the ones I am asking about above. Are these earlier strikes, or did they just run out of ink so they couldn't print the barcode directly on the box? Thanks for anyone and everyones help, D
This was commented by a U.S. Mint spokesperson in Coin World a while ago. The coins are transported from the mint to a company that packs them in rolls, and then the rolls are shipped to another company for packaging. Considering that first strikes and later strikes are mixed already at the mint, and the coins are then transported to two different companies handling the rolling and packaging (and neither company pays any attention to if the coins are first strikes or not, because there is no way for them to know), there is NO WAY to know which coins were the first one pressed using new dies. The numbers are put of the boxes by the company that packs the rolls from Denver and Philadelphia into the white boxes. The numbers are serial numbers for the order in which the box sets were put together and is in NO WAY correlated with the coins being foirst strikes or not. The sellers on Ebay are frauding buyers in this case.
Thanks! I really appreaciate your help. It has been really bugging me because I see people selling keelboat rolls and bison rolls in the mint boxes as first strikes, and getting upwards of almost $50 a box on ebay, simply by saying in their description that they are first strikes. And the consumer has no idea. Thanks, D
I missed out on the 2004 roll sets and decided to buy them off Ebay. Paid $25 for the pace medal set and $13 for the keelboat set. Peace medal roll sets used to sell for somewhere around $60-70 a couple of months ago no matter if they are "first strikes" or not. Now they are more expensive. Keelboat sets seem to sell for about $15 nowadays. If you can get a "first strike" peace medal set for $50, you got a pretty good price compared to what other are paying. $50 for a "first strike" keelboat set is a rip-off.
