MINT BAGS VS. MINT ROLLS
rb7557
Posts: 745
WHICH OF THE 2 ARE BETTER FOR NICE COINS? I SPENT LAST EVENING GOING THRU A 1000 COIN BAG OF FLA P MINT QUARTERS AND I SET ASIDE 5 COINS TO BE SLABBED. I WAS PRETTY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE CONDITION OF THE COINS OVERALL. THERE WERE A HANDFUL IN THERE THAT LOOKED LIKE THEY HAD BEEN RAN ACROSS SANDPAPER. I'VE SEEN BETTER COINS IN MY POCKET CHANGE. I SET ASIDE A ROLL OF THE BEST ONES FOR MY ROLL COLLECTION. I WAS THINKING ABOUT SELLING THE REST ON EBAY BUT I DON'T HAVE THE HEART TO PASS ON SOME OF THESE AS UNCIRCULATED.
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To answer your question, there is no such thing as an original mint roll, except for the rolls that the mint started to sell to collectors a couple of years ago. The only original mint packageing for business strike coins issed for circulation is the $1,000 face value bag. Like the mini bags, those collector mint rolls only hold their value if they remain unopened. They are not really a source for choice single coins unless you want to take the chance and open them. And if the coins inside are stinky, you have lost some money.
As for the condition of the coins in your bag, I heard that is not unusual. The mints, but the Philadelphia mint especially puts out a mediocre product for circulation these days. Very few coins are struck well enough to call them "GEMS" (e.g. MS-66 or higher), which is why such coins are worth a premium although we can debate as to how much that premium should be. It takes a lot sorting at a lot of hard work to find really high quality state quarters. AND if you get a batch that were made at the end of useful like of the dies, you will get crummy coins.
Remember mints are factories that produce a product that need only be good enough to satisfy the needs of commerce. They are not dedicated to making perfect coins that will make collectors happy, except for special issues like Proof sets and the more recent mint sets.
The coins that go into rolls and bags varies from roll to roll and bag to bag. Generallythe
contents of a roll will be represented by the output of only a few die pairs so there is a
large element of luck. Some coins in recent years have been made as gems in large numbers
and some have been quite scarce. In any case here will be a tendency for the best examples
to be made by a single die pair over a brief period and then for these coins to remain together
until they are dispersed in circulation. It becomes a matter of finding them.
There's probably no real difference between the quality of coins in bags and rolls. Certainly
it's possible for gems to be more common in either, but this is luck of the draw and will change
as soon as you discover it. Mint sets are often the source of the finest coins in recent years.
These are almost always well struck but some years will suffer from extreme marking.
Good luck.
found the first 03-d kennedy in 68. Very lucky find!!! But the quarters were lousy, even in the mint sets. Bad year I know. I did stop opening those mint issued rolls. Left them in their unopened boxes
and put em away for a rainy day. As far as getting rolls from the bank, they seem to be very slow at getting them and they don't like to give them out for some reason. Guess I will have to get friendly with a teller!!!