"The Agony and the Ecstasy"........Searching Bags!

[cpm9ball]

I have often read, here and in other publications, that it is difficult to find higher grade coins from bags. Does anyone have a personal story about searching bags they would like to share? It doesn't matter if it is about older coins or newer coins. It doesn't matter if it is pleasantly surprising or miserably disappointing.

 

I'd like to start this off with one of my disappointing experiences, first. I mentioned in another thread that I ordered two $50 bags of the new Buffalo nickel. I was really anxious to see the new design. But, it was such a disappointment because of their terrible condition. Out of 2000 coins, I will be lucky if fewer than a dozen grade MS64.

 

On a brighter note, the $25 bags of CA States Quarters that I got from the Mint were just the opposite. (I alluded to this in another thread, but I misstated the number of bags.) In all, there were two, $25 bags of each mintmark. I gave each coin a cursory inspection and set aside those I thought would grade fairly high, a little more than 100 coins (about 25% of the total). Not long ago, I submitted 62 of them for grading to NGC, specifying a minimum grade of MS65. I just picked them up this past Thursday and here are the results:

 

> 2005-P CA; submitted - 39

MS65 - 1 (2.6%)

MS66 - 1 (2.6%)

MS67 - 31 (79.5%)

MS68 - 6 (15.3%)

 

> 2005-D CA; submitted - 23

MS65 - 1 (4.35%)

MS66 - 9 (39.1%)

MS67 - 12 (52.2%)

MS68 - 1 (4.35%)

 

> 2005 CA (P & D); total submitted - 62

MS65 - 2 (3.2%)

MS66 - 10 (16.1%)

MS67 - 43 (69.4%)

MS68 - 7 (11.3%)

 

> 2005-P CA; total purchased - 200

MS65 - 1 (0.5%)

MS66 - 1 (0.5%)

MS67 - 31 (15.5%)

MS68 - 6 (3%)

 

> 2005-D CA; total purchased - 200

MS65 - 1 (0.5%)

MS66 - 9 (4.5%)

MS67 - 12 (6%)

MS68 - 1 (0.5%)

 

NOTE: These figures do not include more than 40 coins that will grade just as high, but have yet to be submitted.

 

I'm very happy with the results! Any opinions?

 

Finally, it is appropriate that my purchase of five $100 bags of 2001 Kennedy halves were "Mixed P & D" because I had mixed results with them:

 

The Agony was the fact that only one "D" graded MS67 and one graded MS68.

 

I was consoled by the fact that I also found 27 "P" coins (some duplicates) that show four stages of a progressive error on the reverse (See April 11 Coin World , page 100.) It has yet to be determined if the progression of errors was, initially, caused by a die crack, die gouge or die clash. There is also evidence of another filled die chip different than the one reported in the article. On the 3rd and 4th coins in the progression, you can clearly see that the right side of the eagle's neck has "swollen" and partially obscures the bottom of the nearest ray. I pointed this out to Coin World but they omitted it in the article. I can only theorize that it was a die clash that started a chain reaction.

 

Ah, the Ecstasy was that out of those 1000 Kennedys, I found one coin that had the clad layer missing on the reverse. According to Alan Herbert, there are fewer than 100 of these in existence. I took it to NGC on April 7, and I can't wait to get it back!

 

These are my stories. Does anyone have any they would like to share?

 

Chris

[jom]

I'm sorry but I see NO ecstasy searching bags of moderns no matter how many MS67s you find. Sounds more like torture to me.

 

 

jom

[Leothelion]

I'm sorry but I see NO ecstasy searching bags of moderns no matter how many MS67s you find. Sounds more like torture to me.

 

 

jom

 

It took me 3-4 months to go through 2 nickel bags totaling 8000 coins. It's a good idea to switch eyeballs every so often before they both end up in one socket!

 

Leo

 

They were 69D and 70D bags and I was checking just about every other nickel for full steps.

[cladking]

I once dumped a $1,000 bag on my mother's kitchen table and told her that someday the contents of the bag would be worth as much as a house if it were kept intact. That was 1982 and these were Philly quarters. I had gone to a lot of trouble tracking down the finest coins in this region. When a clerk handed me a couple brand new quarters that were very nice, I asked where the store did their banking and went straight there.

 

The bag was great. About fifteen die pairs were represented and a couple of them were very numerous and nice even strikes from relatively new dies. In fact all the ten die pairs that were there in large quantity were better than the typical coin seen in circulation. About half the bag would have gone MS-61 or MS-62 and the bulk of the rest were MS-63. There were several dozen MS-64 and a few even higher grade including a single example which might be unimprovable. It's a nearly perfect strike from dies with about 20,000 strikes on them.

 

I have no idea what these would be/ are worth today but the '83-P bag from the next year will wholesale for $100,000. The '83 was a little easier to find good quality and the type "d" reverse is so common that the odds of some of these being in the bag are extremely high. I did salt away a few of these also.

 

The agony of looking for coins in those days was that many bags would contain NO coins better than MS-60. Of course the ectasy is being able to find a coin for your collection in pocket change for a quarter. And this says nothing of the pleasure of having monetary gains in the other coins in excess of 30,000%. Many times, far in excess. To each his own.