Does anyone know when shrink wrapping of rolls began> I just received a shrink wrapped roll of 1981P cents. Or is this more common of private persons doing their own after they have searched rolls? Thanks all. Tom
Not sure Tom, But I have saved all the 2009 and 11 , 12, shrink wrapped rolls, And before that I had never seen them before.
We used shrink wrap at work back in the 80's so I know it's been around for various purposes since then but I also have only seen it on coins wrapped from the 2000's or so in the past.
I told my wife if she saw any 2017's to grab me a batch! I know this does not help but she says she does not see them anymore.
Shrink wrapped rolls began appearing at least as early as the late 1980's. That is what a roll searcher who has been searching since the '80's has previously stated. Shrink wrapped rolls used to be very common in my area but for the last few years they've all been paper wrapped. I recall last fall I found some shrink wrapped rolls of cents from about 2004 that I had stashed away. I brought them to the bank to redeem (this same location used to give out exclusively shrink wrapped rolls--save for CWR's) and the teller was perplexed about them, their face value and she even asked if she could accept them!
Here's a 1967 patent for a machine to wrap them in transparent heat shrinkable film: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3457695A/en
I had about 5 rolls of the 2005 Nickels in shrink-wrap. Hated them when I tried to break 'em out. I prefer paper wrappers.
