Should a mint roll of lincoln wheat cents (red) ever be opened? Also, can a bank roll of red lincolns be trusted to be uncirculated? thanks.
Depends on what you want to do with it. If you are a roll collector, then keep it in tact. If you are a variety collector you would open it. There is no law stating not to or to open them. It is up to the collector. Lets say you have more than one roll from the same run. By opening 1-2 rolls you can tell what is usually in the rest of the rolls. So finding nothing special in the first rolls may incline you to sell off the rest in tact. But only one roll? I know what I would do.
One of the red lincoln rolls is 1956-D from the mint, no bank name on it. I think I'll keep it as a roll. But in the case of a 1956 bank-stamped roll, this is the one to open: would you agree?
Some rolls have marking and some don't. With the total number of OBW rolls getting smaller, they are being opened for a reason. Some nice RPMs on that year. http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1956d1mm003l.jpg http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1956d1mm009l.jpg http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1956D_1MM_008_LDS.jpg http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1956D_1MM_014.jpg http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1956D_1OM_02.jpg That is just a small example of what it there..... So you know what I would do in a heart beat!
Dime RPMs I know nothing about. I'm a Lincoln Cent variety enthusiast. But they have RPMs in them also.
I like mercury dimes, but now I'm getting into lincolns. that's why I didnt know if I should break open these beautiful red cents. now I know.
I found two different RPMs in some circulated Mercury dimes I bought a while back: http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1940S_10MM_001.jpg One unlisted: http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1943_S_UNLISTED.jpg
I was going through junk Mercs a few months ago and found both varieties of the 1928 S (large and small). More Merc varieties keep popping up all the time. I will not sell any more Mercs for sure.
