Take a chance on a Bag of Ikes??

I'm considering buying a 1k bag of Ikes at face. The bag had been in the posession of my friend's uncle since 1978-1979. My buddy thinks his uncle bought them once he heard they were discontinuing the series, as an investment. I've been told its sealed. Sealed by who, I don't know.

The uncle was a fairly serious collector/part time dealer until the mid 1990's. He died in September and my buddy is responsible for cleaning out his stuff. My buddy knows I love coins and said I have first dibs on it. I told him there might be something of value in the bag. He said good for me if that's the case. I guess the uncle's collection contains A LOT of key dates, gold and rarities. In fact, he told me he has a couple of auction houses interested in moving the lot. Accordingly, he's not that concerned about a bag of Ikes.

I figure worst case scenario I can take them to the bank and get my 1k back if I want. If what I've been told is true, who knows what's in there..... Maybe a Morgan! :smile Ok, maybe not, but it could happen. Could be some 40% in there, too...

What do you guys think? Should I go for it? I'm thinking YES!!!

Thanks.

 

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I'd be a buyer all day long at face... whaddaya got to lose?

 

Chances of a Morgan or a 40% being in th bag are pretty darn close to zero. So close as to not being worth worrying about. If it is a sealed mint bag then your best shot is hopefully some high grade pieces. And if they are Unc even if you don't get any high grades you can probably still make some money from selling the Unc rolls, Circs wholesale at about $1.10 each so Unc should bring a little more.

 

Conder - You never know, buddy. You never know........

What about a Lafayette! Hahahahaha.........

 

I'd take them at face. Even if you don't find anything, and they are all truly worth $1, the fun part will be spending them and watching people's reaction to these huge pieces of change.

 

I'd take it in a heartbeat! It's even doubtful that you would find any high grades in it, and you know darn good and well that the grading services wouldn't treat (grade) dollar coins from this bag like they do Morgans. No, what I would be looking for in the bag would be errors and varieties. Find a few of these, and you might recover everything you paid and still have $995 to spend.

Chris

 

Yes is a good way to be thinking.
Just the other day my son found me
12 Ike's and 2 of the 12 were 1973 S 40%
Silver:hail: And Doubled Die Obverses to boot

Terry

 

I'm going to pick them up Friday afternoon. I'll let you know what I find....or what I don't find!

 

I'd be all over that looking for Friendly Eagles and '72 Type 2's.

 

I would say go for it. Worst case you can have fun spending them.

 

I buy bags occassionally for face from the bank $1000 face value.
Occassionally there's a 40% or Morgan or peace.
However 2 months ago I got a call from a bank manager and a customer had deposited 2 $500 face value sealed Morgan bags. I bought them, didn't look at them. A week later I decided to open the bags to process them When I see San Francisco mint on the bags.
All 1000 were 40%'s.
The branch manager knew but wasn't greedy, regardless I split the profits in half with him.

 

On the surface, it sounds like a terrific opportunity. Going forward, you stated the owner of these Eisenhower's is or was known to be a coin collector. That reduces the possibility that you would find any 40% silver in there. But you will never know for certain unless you make the move . Good luck.

 

I like Ikes a lot! I actively collect higher grade MS/PR 40% "S" silver Ikes. I hope you score big with a whole bag of 40% coins. As a collector, that guy may well have known why he hung onto them if silver -or- like stated earlier he got them when the series was ending. Honestly speaking, I am skeptical of what you will find with this bag based on the time frame you were given. I will place a guess here now and wait to see what you find and report back to us. Do post pics if you find anything awesome in that bag. Good luck!

My guess is that you find a $1000 Mint sealed bag of regular business strike Ikes. Most likely you will find ALL 1977-D or ALL '78-D cu-ni Ike dollars. There are more of those two date/mm out there than the '78-P Ikes and there were even fewer '77-P minted. Of course the "S" mm coins were even more limited, for mint/proof sets.

 

heck yeah I'd buy them! Who knows, you could be the first with a superbly rainbow toned, high grade, Ike Dollar!

(oh yeah, and silver too)

 

That is pretty cool. I don't think I've heard of another score like that. I got a $1000 bag of halves that were 40% about six months ago but I know that dollar coins contain over twice as much silver as a half.

 

If it's a sealed bag then it's probably a solid date BU bag.

Somebody recently opened up a bag of 1977 Ikes and found a couple dozen in high grade worth several hundred each. Odds are good there will be lots of keepers but don't expect any money coins. Some of these dates sell for strong premiums even in typical BU so don't just dump the mediocre coins until you check the value.

 

If you're getting them at face, you've got nothing to lose. And even if you don't find anything worth more than a dollar, you had the fun of searching through the bag with the potential to hit it big. I say do it.

 

No brainer...Buy them.

 

The OP might also check for die-clashes, die-abrasion and peg-leg varieties known to Ike dollars.

More info about Ike varieties being researched can be found here: ikegroup.org

 

I picked the bag up this afternoon. First, it was NOT a sealed bag from the mint. The coins were in one of those heavy duty clear plastic bags. Very good mix of coins from all years. All P's and D's...No S's. I looked through them all pretty quickly for silver. Zero silver. However, there was one painted or electroplated gold. It had some counterstamps on the obverse. To the left of Ike are 5 stars in a pentagon (for five star general, I suppose) To the right of Ike is "1945-1985" I assume this commemorates a WWII battle, or some other milestone in Ike's career.

There are also two "holed" dollars. Most are in average circulated state. Some are worn almost smooth. Very few high grade, if any. I find it hard to grade clad, but I'm going to work my way through them to see if any are worth sending into NGC. A couple have pretty nice copper/gold or rainbow toning. Plenty of 71's and I know they are rare in gem state. I found about 15 type I 1976 as well. I'll look for die errors, varieties, too. I need to brush up on what to look for.

I've asked my wife to take some pics and I'll get them up shortly. After I've pulled what I want, my dealer friend is going to buy the rest at a small premium. So I should make a little money no matter what. I'll probably pull about 60 of the best ones, put them in tubes and hold on to them.