Well, I hit the jackpot once again. Found 3 proof nickels and 2 proof dimes in my till! This is so insane! Nickels 1988-s 1990-s 1992-s Dimes 1986-s 1992-s David
Ya know - you may want to contact your local Police Dept. and ask if there have been any coin collection robberies recently. I could understand finding a few Proof examples every now and then - but the number you have been finding recently - nope aint gonna happen. Of course it might be some kid spending his collection too
"There are a lot of proof coins in circulation and there are thousands of different ways they get there. But the odds of getting five proof nickels in a single roll go beyond the astronomical and imply exactly from whence these came and how they got there. These almost certainly came from someone who was busting up sets to assemble rolls of the individual coins. These rolls are steady sellers and bring pretty good prices. In most cases the coins are actually worth more out of the sets than they are worth in the set because they are needed for date and mint collections which are vigorous sellers to the public and most people don't bust their sets. Most of the buyers of these rolls insist on there being no culls included so the people making he rolls often just roll up the poor examples (~3 to 10% of mintage) and haul them to the bank. These coins do have some value still but it is rather nominal and buyers are not easily found. Many people like the idea of "salting" the coins in circulation anyway so they end up there. Not many years ago almost the entire value of these sets was almost exclusively represented in the half dollar and cent so the entire rest of the set would sometimes go into circulation no matter the quality of the coins. The coins rarely circulate long before they are found and removed by a collector though about 1998 I found a '68-S quarter in VG! " This was posted to your first find of the '86, '89, and '91 proofs. Now there are two more dates represented. It is mostly the late '80's and early '90's dates being busted up right now because of the rising value of the coins and the dropping prices of the sets. I'm still assuming that these coins do not compare favorably with the coins normally found in proof sets. My guess is that most have a little toning or smudges on them. A few have little scratches or even significant gouges. I'll bet not one of them is "perfect" (as issued) and it can't be blamed on circulation since these aren't really circulating yet as evidenced by the fact that they're still together. What part of the country are you in?
That's where I'm from!!! Did you get him confused with me, because I don't see Conn. in nds76's profile.
Good grief. I can't seem to keep you two straight. Sorry for the confusion. I'll edit my post to remove the incorrect info. Thanks.
There are some huge buyers of these sets and sometimes they'll bust up as many as three or four thousand sets at a time of each date. I've seen bag sets of proofs that all came from the same lot of sets! Figure if there are only five dates in this kind of quantity then there could be several hundred to a thousand culls. If you find any undamaged ones without toning then there could well be another cause for these showing up. I'm not familiar with any large dismantlers in N. Michigan.
I have been very lucky. Finding anything from proofs, silver, and buffalo nickels. I can understand finding old coins and the occasional silver coin being found, but how the proofs get in there puzzle me. In anycase, I always keep my eyes & ears open. A few of the proofs I found have some toning, possibly a smudge or two, but overall they look pretty decent. Now that I have these, what do I do with them? I don't know who would buy these proofs as they were in circulation briefly. David
nds76, I'll admit I am a little slow and it does take time for the light bulb in my head to go off but here is some info. There was a coin dealer that was robbed earlier this year in the Petoskey area. I do not know the name of the place but I did hear about it from a dealer in Grayling. As GDSMSP suggested, you may want to contact the police in Petoskey.
I have been by the coin shop in Grayling many times but I haven't went in there yet...one of these days. David
