Received the new nickels today!

[Wihlborg]

Well, I received the four rolls (two ‘P’ & two ‘D’) of the new Lewis and Clark "Peace Medal Design" nickels that I ordered from the mint today, and the quality of the coins is awful!

 

Out of 80 ‘P’ mint cons, I found 1 coin that I would grade MS-66. The other 79 coins would be lucky if they graded MS-63. The ‘D’ mint coins were a little better. I found 2 coins that I would grade MS-66, and 5 coins I would grade MS-65. The other 73 coins, like the ‘P’ mint coins are no better than MS-63.

 

I am not really surprised, as this is about par for the couple of other times I have bought rolls from the mint. To tell the truth, I have much better success percentage wise finding higher grade coins in mint sets, but even the mint sets leave a lot to be desired quality wise.

 

The thing that bothers me about the quality of the coins being offered by the U.S. mint is the fact that the coins put out for collectors by the mints of most other countries are IMO far superior to what is being sold at a premium by our own mint.

 

I am not really complaining, I am just putting forth my thoughts about the quality of the coins the mint is offing to collectors at a premium.

 

I would not mind paying a premium for coins from the mint if they took a little more care minting and handling the coins so the quality were better, but in this case the mint is charging more than double the face value of the rolls and sending coins that are no better than ones I could get in pocket change.

 

What do you think?

[TomB]

How does the design look in-hand? I've seen images of them, however, things tend to have a different feel to them when you can really examine them.

[Wihlborg]

How does the design look in-hand? I've seen images of them, however, things tend to have a different feel to them when you can really examine them.

 

Tom,

 

I like it. I think it reduced very well and looks quite nice.

 

John

[Wihlborg]

Tom,

 

One thing I have noticed. The forefinger of the Native American’s hand seems to be the high point of the design and as such almost all of the 160 coins show hits or light abrasion in this area. Although the thumb of the soldier’s hand look to be as high, if not higher than the Native American’s forefinger, very few of the coins show hits or abrasion to the soldier’s thumb.

 

John

[EZ_E]

John,

 

Thanks for all of the great information. You answered alot of questions that I had.

 

[Bruceswar]

can you post a pic of some of the nickels and what they look like... more as the hits etc

[spy88]

I got my 5 rolls of each today too, and I have to agree with everything John said. EXCEPT I feel like complaining to the mint for the poor quality of coins for the money they charge. I'd swear some of mine had been on the mint press room floor for awhile before someone decided to pick them up and put them in a roll! I only opened 1 of each and found the same ratio as John did.

 

And it seems to me that the same is true for ANY series UNC coins you buy from the mint. I have found many state quarters in circulation that are far and away better then the mints plasticized sets---by 2-3 points!

 

Anyway, here is one of the better ones, even with the hit to the reverse.

 

[jtryka]

This is why I plan on getting mine from the bank for $2 per roll.

[Hoot]

Thanks for the reports! I'm just back from Costa Rica and didn't even know they'd been released !

 

Hoot

[Wihlborg]

Hi Hoot!

 

How was your trip? I hope you enjoyed yourself. Did you bring any coins back from Costa Rica with you? I noticed you had not posted for a while, but I did not know you had gone on your trip already.

 

Glad to have you back

 

John

[Weidel Legacy Collection]

Hoot -

Welcome back to the land of sinking stock and rising silver

 

I hope you had a great trip!

[Hoot]

Thanks for the welcome John & Roger! The trip was quite good. A learning experience, as it was my first time there, but we managed to have a fair bit of fun, saw some excellent wildlife (I still can't get over the wild toucans!) and had some great hikes, even on a volcano that was erupting at the time (Arenal)!

 

Yes, I brought back a few coins, only one of which was in mint state, which was a 500 colones. Their inflation is rampant in the country and the exchange is now about 425 colones to a dollar. They have two distinct compositions to their coins - brass and a nickel alloy. Some denominations, e.g., the 5 and 10 colones, have both compositions and are different sizes! The nickel coins work with coin operated pay phones (there are at least 4 different kinds of pay phones ), but the brass coins do not.

 

Costa Rican paper money is quite colorful, with the 5000 colones denomination being the prettiest with wildlife on the reverse (toucan, jaguar, and tropical plants - all in color). (The 10000 colones note has a nice jaguar on the reverse.) I kept a 5000 colones note.

 

Sorry to divert the theme of your thread a bit John! As for the Jeff nickels, I'll order a roll or two of each mint and leave them in the roll for the next generation of collectors to contemplate for the treasures inside .

 

Mark.

[dakra]

I received mine today. I started going through the P Mint bag and came across 1 die crack and a few coins that seem to have a cud or extra metal over the "T" in "United"

 

Based on what I have seen of the "P" mint... the lettering appears very weak. Many of the coins have hits all over the place, hopefully Denver put out a better product. I have not seen any coins so far that are worthy of grading. I'm going to open one roll of each and hope the results are better. If the pictures come out good, I will post some later.

 

Dave

[Dry]

I order enough mint sets to cherry pick 'em. Its the better value IMO.

[dakra]

In my short time looking at the P & D mint bags and rolls.... Mint Sets may be the way to go.

 

Denver has the best strike from the coins I have gone through so far. Denver definately has quality this year.

 

I have found 1 possible MS68/69 in a Denver roll so far. The mint bags are horrible but the rolls had a few nice ones in it. I found one with toning (again, hopefully I can get a good picture of it.)

 

I'm still going through them, hopefully I will have more to report later.

 

Dave

[dakra]

Check out the "T" in United.

[dakra]

how about some toning? (see pic)

[Beijim]

I am not really complaining, I am just putting forth my thoughts about the quality of the coins the mint is offing to collectors at a premium.

 

When you pay premium prices and get junk, complaints are in order, no matter what the product. The United States Mint has a long way to go in quality control before the reality will match the bragadoccio they feed to the press.

 

Beijim

[EZ_E]

The United States Mint has a long way to go in quality control before the reality will match the bragadoccio they feed to the press.

 

Beijim

 

Beautiful statement and so true! Their opinion polls probably come from the online survey which is skewed anyway.

 

I got two rolls of the new nicks the other day which I am not going to open. Just the coins on the end of the rolls have moderate to severe problems.

 

This means that the Modern Junkies are goin' to have to pay big bucks for higher graded coins. I betcha that an ms 67 will bring at least a hundred dollars.

[Wihlborg]

Quote:

 

 

I am not really complaining, I am just putting forth my thoughts about the quality of the coins the mint is offing to collectors at a premium.

 

 

 

When you pay premium prices and get junk, complaints are in order, no matter what the product. The United States Mint has a long way to go in quality control before the reality will match the bragadoccio they feed to the press.

 

Beijim

 

Hi Beijim,

 

I agree that complaints about quality of the coins are valid. What I meant by my statement was that I already knew from past experience what to expect from the mint offered rolls, so I have no one to blame for buying them except myself. I just thought of it as buying a lottery ticket. I knew I was probably wasting my money, but maybe I would hit the jackpot and find something nice!

 

John

[Beijim]

Howdy John,

 

I totally agree that it's a [!@#%^&^] shoot when ordering from the Mint. I felt you *would* be justified in complaining, because the premium the Mint charges for these rolls is excessive. While I appreciate that the Mint clearly states the coins are stuck on their main production floor presses, there remains an implication that you'll receive higher quality in exchange for the premium paid. Sadly, it appears that in reality all the extra premium buys is some sexy "official" paper wrapped around what could otherwise be obtained at the local bank. That's annoying.

 

In any event, I hope your quest for nice examples succeeds eventually, if only through the upcoming mint sets!

 

Sincerely,

Beijim