David Lange, of NGC, wrote a book about old coin boards. Maybe he could provide some information about it.
Here is a website with information about Joseph Oberwise J. Oberwise & Company (coincollectingboards.com)
These were a cool idea. Once you had the album full you could send it in and they paid you a premium for the set. I once had a Lincoln cent board like this. I found a 1909 S VDB in the 09 S hole.
One more fun story. A good friend of mine found several of these boards in his grandmother's attic. I ended up with them. The Barber dime board was almost full. I used many of the dimes to upgrade my set and filled all the holes I could with low grade ones I had laying around. I put it on Ebay. It was a very honest listing and made it clear that all the coins were AG to Good. The bidding went crazy. Folks didn't care about the coins. They wanted the board. I had no clue it had any value.
I have heard these stories about coin boards in the ‘30s were dealers sold them and offered to buy them back when they were completed. I have never seen one, however.
My Father introduced me to coin collecting when I was very young (~1962). I never heard about a coin board company buying back completed collections, but I was always taught that a completed collection was worth more than the sum of its parts.
I have to admit that I was not aware of a coin board company buying a completed set in its board from the collector. Thank you for sharing this with us. This would make a good question for a new post: Is a completed coin set worth more than the sum of its part?
I have several modern coin boards but nothing as attractive and sturdy looking as those posted, very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing.
I was just wondering is these early coin board companies buying back completed sets may have created that impression.
Yes, but look at the "premiums" offered. $25 to $50 for a complete flying eagle and indian set that has the 1856, the 1877, the 09 S. The Shield and V nickel set for $7.50 to $15 with the 1879, 80, 81, the 1885,, 86, and 12 S. The premiums were NOT good deals for the collectors and he was hoping to get sets filled by people that didn't know what the coins were worth. In general no. If you take a full set to a dealer for an offer they will total up the key dates, figure what they can sell them for, come back some from that so they can make a profit and that's the offer. The rest of the set just comes long for the ride. If they are silver coins he may add in melt value.
