Original mint sets - toned coins

Bankerbob56

Any thoughts on the "destruction" of truly original mint sets, in original packaging, for the beautifully toned lincoln cents. Other coins are nice as well but the cents are unbelievably nicely toned. Does placing them in third party holders slow the toning? Is it financially a good idea? The sets in question are the 56, 57, and 58 original mint sets... Thanks!

coinguy1

You can remove them from the cardboard holders to reduce (though not guarantee) the risk of further oxidation. And keep the coins and the holder together, that way.

Depending upon the quality of the individual coins, it might or might not be worth the cost of grading. But the fees add up, so research the estimated values for the coins of the grades that you would expect to receive, and determine whether grading looks like a winning proposition.

Often an attractively toned set will pretty much sell itself.

Coppercolor

Bankerbob,
I wrestle with that dillemma all the time, and am wondering if your post was prompted by the 30 or so sets I'm selling over on the BST?

My thoughts weave back and forth but I would love to share them.

First answer relates to putting the coins in third party holders. My experience is that you will generally interrupt the toning by removing them from the holder - and third party grading is a great storage method for lincolns. I have personally not experienced toning changes after encapsulation. I have encapsulated many mint set lincolns some from sets I've wrecked and many many others that I have found or traded for. I have also sold a good number. Financially, a 56' or 57' coin had better either have remarkable toning or be a minimum of 66RB to be profitable, they're the most common lincoln dates with color. For a 58, which is rarer with color, the standards aren't as high.

To comment on whether you "should" break up a set here are my thoughts.

I hate breaking these sets up. Though I have broken quite a few for grading and my practices are constantly evolving and there are many reasons to do it and many to not.
a) I used to have no issue pulling a few coins to grade and dumping the set at a discount.
b) Then there was the temptation to piece sets together but that didn't feel right either.
c) Then I decided that if I was going to break a set I would only break ones where most of the coins deserved grading. I have several "boxes of 20" where I've kept the set together after grading. This is really cool but costs $250-$350 grading fee hit to do it.
d) These days I am enjoying the hunt to find the sets, and I enjoy having them and looking at them for a year or so then passing them on. I am slowly putting aside one of each date to keep for a much longer time and may give the grading treatment.

In the time I"ve been playing with these sets, I have seen a wide range of condition and toning. The FACT IS that many many of these sets NEED TO BE BROKEN out of their holders immediately. Pulling the coins before they overtone, spot, fuzz, burn, turn black is preserving numismatic history and shouldn't be looked upon negatively. In other cases pulling beautiful coin which is on it's way to becoming a monster could be considered shameful.