Modern collectors - advice on rolls (post from Coin Forum)

Blade

I just posted this on the US Coin forum but I know different folks post over here.

I am kicking around the idea of building a roll set of state quarters. Cheap investment, etc. However, what is the quality found in the Mint rolls? Are there some MS66-67-68 coins to be found? I read Supercoin's thread about his 2002 Sacs that were trashed by a roll counter or some other machinery and I don't want to spend 1c on Mint produced junk. Do you have to buy the bags to have a shot at nicer coins? Advice appreciated.

cladking

It is highly improbable that any given roll will contain an MS66 or better coin. Indeed,
since only a dozen die pair are represented in a box (1/2 bag) it is very improbable that
one would be found here also. The up-side is that if you find one gem there are liable to
be a lot more.

keithdagen

Tom,

I bought three rolls of 1964-D Kennedys once. Original, bankwrapped rolls, never opened. 60 Kennedys, 1 MS-66, a few MS-65s, mostly MS-64 or less.

gmarguli

It is highly improbable that any given roll will contain an MS66 or better coin. Indeed,
since only a dozen die pair are represented in a box (1/2 bag) it is very improbable that
one would be found here also. The up-side is that if you find one gem there are liable to
be a lot more.

What do die pairs have to do with grade? Nothing!

You can search thru 1000 rolls and find nothing. You can search thru 1 roll and find a bunch of gems. It is random.

There is no upside to rolls of state quarters. I saw the 1999 rolls (bid at around $35 at the time) fail to sell for $17.50. Now they are id at around $20. I bet dealers couldn't sell these for $14 a roll.

MS67PLUS

Looking for high grade coins in rolls is just like Forest Gump used to say " Rolls are like a box of chocolate you never know what you will get"

cladking

A good rule of thumb is that only new dies which are properly adjusted can strike a gem.
It's also probable that two consecutive coins off the same die will experience very sim-
ilar fates. They will fall together into the same bin while it's at the same height. They will
stay close together through the same counting machine and even land in the same bag.
Of course it's not quite this simple or you'd tend to get strike # 21,788 to strike # 22,253
in the same bag with ten or twelve other die pairs. Instead you'll tend to get a much wider
range, as much as around 40,000. With these die pairs striking a quarter million coins, it's
not even too likely you'll even get any strikes from a new die. If you do, there is no gaurantee
that it is properly adjusted. If it is you'll get a run of gems off the same dies. I've seen bags
with multiple runs of gems.

gmarguli

Coins are struck, run thru sorting and counting machines, dumped into bags, put on pallats, moved by forklifts, and more. The probability that two early strike coins struck in a row will remain high grade is no better than two random coins throughtout the die life.

99% of coins minted today are fully struck and you can't tell where in the die life they were made.

clackamas

Coin dies are very important in determining grade. If you get a roll with a good die pair your in busines. Many dies get chatter from metal bits that adhere and create marks on the dies and hterefore the coins before they have had a chance to contact anything else. Original mint rolls often contain metal dust and particles that prove this. These same bits get caught and dent. ding or impair dies all the time. When you get a new die pair in a roll the coins are well struck, brilliant and will garner the higher grades because they will not have die chatter. Cladking is right. Needless to say I am collecting a mint roll set of state quarters. Mint rolls than I have opened were lucky to have a single 66 in them. If you want a 68 go to ebay beacuse IMO its not worth the time to actually find one.


Brian

cladking

It's true that collector coins are mostly fully struck and the mint has
made some big improvements in the strikes of circulating coinage, but
on the circulating coinage strike is still the factor which prevents large
percentages of coins from being superb gems. No, you can't tell exactly
which number a coin is off the die, but you can usually narrow it down to
nine or ten die states and frequently be able to rank two coins which were
close together by die damage or die wear.

Certainly too, a well struck coin has no better chance than a poorly struck coin
of making it through the system without damage. This is random. But if one
coin makes it through without damage there is a much higher probability that
the next coin also won't be damaged. And the odds are 100's of times higher
that the next coin is the "sister" to the first than that this "sister" will go through
the system at a different time or way.