The Boston Collection at Heritage

wrighty

I’m surprised there hasn’t been a discussion on this unless I missed it. We all like great finds and stories and this is one of them. I’ve linked the 2 minute video from Heritage. Cool stuff
https://youtu.be/IDdpZr2FaZ0

pcgscacgold

Cool, thanks for posting this.

pcgscacgold

I just checked out a small portion on Heritage and WOW!!!!! Unopened sets from 1942-1950's. Hundreds for some years. Unsearched Bank rolls of all denominations from the 40's, 50's. Just incredible. There go the top pops.........

291fifth

Stored in a garage! Amazing!

gumby1234

Whats odd is different names and addresses on the packages. Cambridge, Brookline, Boston.

retirednow

What fun it must have been to realize what they uncovered ... I wonder where they parked the Vet!

Walkerfan

That's amazing!!

Very cool!!

SoCalBigMark

SoCalBigMark

SoCalBigMark

SoCalBigMark

The " Pocket Change" Boston collection subset...

oreville

My collection looks very similar. i have unopened obw
cent rolls from 1938 to 1980
Nickel rolls from 1938 to 1960
Dime rolls from 1946 to 1964
Quarter rolls from 1942 to 1970
No obw rolls of half dollars.
Much more stuff.

pcgscacgold

@oreville said:
My collection looks very similar. i have unopened obw
cent rolls from 1938 to 1980
Nickel rolls from 1938 to 1960
Dime rolls from 1946 to 1964
Quarter rolls from 1942 to 1970
No obw rolls of half dollars.
Much more stuff.

Wow, looks like you have a tremendous collection as well.

MtW124

One word, INCREDIBLE!!! Many more hoards out there I’m sure. I know of at least two in my family but they won’t budge yet 🤓

pcgscacgold

@MtW124 said:
One word, INCREDIBLE!!! Many more hoards out there I’m sure. I know of at least two in my family but they won’t budge yet 🤓

Yes, there are a lot of Walkers, Franklins, Washingtons, etc sitting in bank rolls waiting to come out. The top pops are going to move quickly when these rolls are sent in. It will be fun to watch over the next 5-10 years as collections get handed down and broken up.

jedm

Even the change they received back from the mint was certified! Very cool.

DCW

I am more impressed that there is a garage in Boston! Seriously, no free parking anywhere in that city. The owner must have been very wealthy to not only have space to store his vehicle, but also to buy and store his coins there. And apparently never look at them, as they're in sealed boxes. Incredible story

johnny9434

Amazing stuff, I like 👍

Meltdown

I'm hoping to find a hoard like that at a garage sale one of these weekends too!

Morgan13

My guess is that the original owner passed on and someone likely in the family found them and was wise enough to contact a reputable auction house to offer them at auction.
Very cool and yes, totally amazing.

BillJones

It’s hard to believe that those coins spent all of that time in a New England garage and still looks that good. Given the up and down temperatures in that region, one would think that some of those coins would the worse for the environment.

gumby1234

@DCW There are lots of garages in Boston. Some of the old ones like mine are made of concrete. The roof on my garage is a foot thick concrete with rebar. The walls are as thick as standard concrete blocks.

BillJones

Following up on this, I would be concerned about the condition of the coins in the unopened Proof set boxes. The sets can't be dated 1955 because the 1955 box sets have the date and contents printed on the outside. Therefore they are from the 1950 to 1954 timeframe.

About half of the 1954 sets were packaged in the plastic sleeves which induced very ugly tarnish on the silver coins. If these pieces were kept in a garage for years with the temperature and humidity uncontrol, it could be like the TV ad years ago with an orange that wasn't trademarked "Sunkist." You could open it, and a dinosaur could pop out.

Finally the bids are now up to over $300, $360 for the five Proof set lot. The bids for the 1954 and '53 sets are $110 and $190 respectively. The 1952 set bid is $250. You only "win the lottery," quite literally if you find a 1951 or '50 or a couple cameo coins. Why is the consignor and the auction house afraid to open the boxes?

For me, this is a firm pass.

Manifest_Destiny

@BillJones

I agree. I would guarantee they opened a sampling of these and decided there's more money in selling the rest unopened.

Manifest_Destiny

The 87c refund was way cool.

1630Boston

Looks like the Boston financial district
.

BillJones

I worked in the Boston financial district for about a decade.

BLUEJAYWAY

@Manifest_Destiny said:
@BillJones

I agree. I would guarantee they opened a sampling of these and decided there's more money in selling the rest unopened.

Good marketing. As we all know some like to gamble on the unknown.

Dave99B

Come on Heritage, how about some pics of the coins in the opened mint sets. Might be nice to see what I’m buying.

Dave

BillJones

@Dave99B said:
Come on Heritage, how about some pics of the coins in the opened mint sets. Might be nice to see what I’m buying.

Dave

There are some really high grade coins that come out of the old double mint sets. Many of the high grad, certified coins from the late 40s and early to late 50s came from those sets. I’ve seen dealers refuse to sell those sets until they had a chance to cherry pick the one or two coins from them.

There are some clunkers too. Some of the clunkers come from sets that are improperly stored. Remember what I wrote about the orange and the dinosaur.

pruebas

@1630Boston said:
Looks like the Boston financial district
.

Probably had them sent to the office so the wife didn’t know. 😉

jmlanzaf

I was underwhelmed.

Maywood

@BillJones said: Why is the consignor and the auction house afraid to open the boxes?

I would figure it's because the fine folks at Heritage are experienced enough to know the things we know and what to expect. Also, as you suggest, Heritage possibly opened some sets, didn't like what they saw and stopped. There is no way to know if everything in the "garage" is included in this sale. Further, if you notice on the envelopes, not all the Mint envelopes are to the same address and apparently they weren't shipped to the address where they are purported to have been discovered. It is common enough for Heritage to include lots from various sources in a single auction. I don't know if that's what has been done here but it wouldn't surprise me. There's also no way to know when everything was placed in the "garage" and if things were kept somewhere and put there all at the same time. It's doubtful, to me at least, that someone bought these coins at whatever time, put it in the "garage" and added to it over the years.

Judging from the initial reaction by members here it is clear(again to me, at least) that a lot of the story is hype. Every "Hoard" needs a good story and while many are based in truth the embellishment always happens.

Elcontador

@wrighty said:
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a discussion on this unless I missed it. We all like great finds and stories and this is one of them. I’ve linked the 2 minute video from Heritage. Cool stuff
https://youtu.be/IDdpZr2FaZ0

It's really neat to find things like this. However, it goes back to what I have been saying for years. I make a point of avoiding buying top pop coins because experience has shown time and time again that there are many coins from the late 19th century forward that are out there that we don't know about yet.

Go back sixty years. Remember the 1903 O Morgan Dollar? Etc.

SanctionII

Interesting thread; and I agree that it may very well be that the coins being auctioned are not from a single collection acquired by one collector over the decades with annual purchases of proof and mint sets from the mint that were received, not opened and stored away for decades in one location.

In early 2022 I went to a local show and found a dealer who had (according to him) acquired four 1953 OGP proof sets that had been stored in a bank safety deposit box for decades. The boxes were opened so I could look at the individual coins in the proof sets. The coins in the four proof sets were gorgeous Gems; and they contained a "run" of half dollars with mirrored fields and frosted devices. I had the half dollars graded and the Trueview photos of the coins are posted below. For some reason our host decided that none of these half dollars warrant a Cameo designation

Kurisu

Oh boy oh boy...I may be bidding on a couple of those coin roll lots!!!

pcgscacgold

This will be an exciting auction to watch. Prices are climbing. The rolls have exceeded my expectation and Proof/Mint sets are doing well too. Good luck to those bidding.

Zsmartie

In my looking at the rolls of Franklins, I am concerned some look opened on one end. If these were for sale on eBay I would move on. However, some rolls look very legit. Interesting though.

Maybe four months ago I purchased three opened mint sets from late 40’s off a Heritage auction. I ended up submitting several of the coins for grading. They graded okay except one came back details, cleaned. I gave Heritage my opinion on that sale and decided never again purchase any mint set where the envelope has been opened.

JeffersonFrog

Last night was very interesting (my first computer hosted "live" auction on H, it's been a while ...). I thought in general, the prices last night were very high (retail ++). And if I watched correctly, there was not a single 1945-1949 roll auction won by an Internet bidder.
A few that caught my eye:

• $8,100 for five 1947-P rolls, one-each penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half.
• $3,600 for one roll of 1949-S Roosevelt dimes.
• $3,120 for one roll of 1950-S Roosevelt dimes.

Unopened/opened proof sets and rolls are a gamble, for the many reasons already discussed, but I guess "real" unsearched rolls of Mercs, Walkers and even Franklins aren't seen too often these days. The thrill of the hunt ...

Grantu

Curious if any forum members won last night. If so, I would love to see how they did.

Zsmartie

I purchased a Wells Fargo roll of 40 BU Franklins 1951-S. Cost me about $50 a coin. I felt pretty good about that.

jmlanzaf

@Zsmartie said:
I purchased a Wells Fargo roll of 40 BU Franklins 1951-S. Cost me about $50 a coin. I felt pretty good about that.

40? Unusually large roll.

Good luck. $60 per coin (always include BP) is pretty strong sight unseen.

wrighty

The 1945 BU roll of Half Dollars for $12,000 was shocking to me.

Zsmartie

I am a numbers sort of guy. I study the PCGS price list and population. Comparing 1949-D, 1950-D, and in my case 1951-S, the combined ms and dbl populations, the 1949 is 1093, the 1950 is 1183, and the 1951 is 2850. So as popular as the 1949-D and 1950-D are, the odds of finding the ms65 appears better with a roll of 1951-S with my simple logic. If I throw in the 1951-D pop it is 1320. I also factor into the price selling the lower grades as bullion. I realize I have no way to determine how many coins for those years were submitted. But that is the challenge and for me I enjoy the hunt.

wrighty

@Zsmartie said:
I am a numbers sort of guy. I study the PCGS price list and population. Comparing 1949-D, 1950-D, and in my case 1951-S, the combined ms and dbl populations, the 1949 is 1093, the 1950 is 1183, and the 1951 is 2850. So as popular as the 1949-D and 1950-D are, the odds of finding the ms65 appears better with a roll of 1951-S with my simple logic. If I throw in the 1951-D pop it is 1320. I also factor into the price selling the lower grades as bullion. I realize I have no way to determine how many coins for those years were submitted. But that is the challenge and for me I enjoy the hunt.

Please share if you break the roll. I think everyone would like to see how you did. Thank you

pcgscacgold

@Zsmartie said:
I purchased a Wells Fargo roll of 40 BU Franklins 1951-S. Cost me about $50 a coin. I felt pretty good about that.

Have fun searching it. My guess is higher grade pops are going to change some if these Boston rolls are opened and submitted. There are a ton of coins here.

JBN

Here's hoping some FBLs are found in the S-mint rolls.......
Well, those that are searched and not put up for future sale.

SanctionII

What prices did the sealed OGP double mint sets and sealed OGP 1950 to 1956 proof sets bring?

Meltdown

@SanctionII said:
What prices did the sealed OGP double mint sets and sealed OGP 1950 to 1956 proof sets bring?

Here are the few I was watching...
Interesting that the 1947 opened mint set (without photos of the coins) says you can "make offer to buyer".
Sold for $1900, the minimum offer to the new owner starts at $3,300
.

jmlanzaf

@Meltdown said:

@SanctionII said:
What prices did the sealed OGP double mint sets and sealed OGP 1950 to 1956 proof sets bring?

Here are the few I was watching...
Interesting that the 1947 opened mint set (without photos of the coins) says you can "make offer to buyer".
Sold for $1900, the minimum offer to the new owner starts at $3,300
.

That can be the default. Items I sold 10 years ago might still say to make me an offer

DCW

I wonder if anyone will now actually search these unopened rolls?