Hi all, I was recently admiring a newly purchased half eagle, and I began wondering how something so small could be so relatively well preserved, being as old as it is. Even with a few scratches/tick marks and a mild cleaning, it's in pretty good shape, given the fact that it was created before the Civil War (it's an 1843 type 1 coronet). That got me thinking that perhaps it sat in a coin roll for $5 gold pieces for years and years until someone finally broke up the roll and sold each piece to collectors. Then I began to wonder if such a thing, rolls for gold coins, ever really existed for use as we use coin rolls today for pennies, nickels, dimes, etc. Were there rolls for $1, $2.50, $3, half eagle, eagle, and double eagle gold coins? I would imagine that if any still exist, they would be collectors items as well as the items that they held. Thoughts? -StephenS
Yes there were rolls for the older gold coins. You don't see them often though. At one time on ebay I saw a METAL roll wrapper for double eagles. Metal cylinder with tabs that folded over the ends to hold the coins in place. The wrapper held 20 coins.
Mmmmm mmmmm mmmmmm... that would be something to see, eh ? A roll of double eagles - hot off the presses ! Old coppers were sometimes shipped in kegs. Perhaps they did the same with gold. Surely they were also carted around in bags.
OP- good post. If you think about it's amazing how coins that old are in the condition that they are. I have an 1834 classic head in AU53 condition. How it stayed in AU condition is beyond me....its 170+ years old! Especially since the gold fineness in these coins was lowered to allow them to circulate, most are in F-VF-XF because they circulated. Makes you wonder doesn't it? I wonder if there's a collectors market for these 'gold rolls', I sure would love to have one.
I recall seeing a so-called roll for gold coins years ago. If I ever find the reference I'll post it.
Hmmm, never seen one but sure would like to. I think the really intersting question would be - when did coin rolls originate, what year ? I've never found a definitive reference, do you know of one Conder ? I would supsect that it was in the '20s or '30s. And that rolls did not really become common place until the '40s. For it was around this time that necessity would have reared its head and presaged their usage.
A definitive reference, no. But the earliest description I know of dates back to the late 1780's when Matthew Boulton packed the coins he produced for shipment. They were wrapped in paper rolls, each of a set face value and then packed in kegs. Not only rolls, but mint wrapped rolls. There are US patents for coin wrappers that date back to the turn of the 20th century.
I imagine people were rolling coins in the US even before the patents though. I remember Rick Snow had a bunch of gem red Indian Cents from the 1890s on his site last year that he described as coming from an original roll. He had several examples of each date listed.
