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Message:: [QUOTE="Troodon, post: 25501689, member: 4626"]Some people do break open the sets to have individual coins graded, if they find rare errors, varieties, or just individual coins that are in better condition than the average.  The Ben Franklin years (1950-1963) people especially like "cherry-picking" the half dollars to find ones with a cameo effect (high contrast between the field and devices). I personally prefer to keep them in original packaging, as far back as they were in hard plastic casing (so as far back as 1968).  1964 and earlier I put them in Capitol holders made for the purpose, as the packaging is quite flimsy and I'd rather have them better protected. Unless you have a good reason not to, like if you're cherry-picking errors, varieties, or especially high grade coins, I'd probably suggest leaving them in the original packaging, as there is some value to that, as the older a given set gets the less of them remain original.  Just my personal preference, although it's a quite common preference.  Exception I made is 1964 and earlier, as that packaging is really flimsy, and putting them in Capitol holders is almost a tradition.  (I still save the packaging they came in separately though.) I like collecting them as I see them as sort of the yearbook of coins.  I have them as far back as 1960 so far and am trying to go back as far as I can reasonably afford.[/QUOTE]