BU roll of coins from 19th centry

[toyonakataro]

Is there any possibility that a roll of BU coins from late 19th century still be discovered?

How about middle 19th century or even 18th?

[MarkFeld]

Yes, among others, I have seen uncirculated rolls of 1883 No Cents Nickels, pre-1900 Indian Cents and even Seated Liberty Dimes - I think they were 1883 and/or 1884 and/or 1885. And of course there are a great many pre-1900 Morgan Dollar rolls out there. Additionally, I realize that 1916-D Barber Quarter rolls don't count, but my guess is that there are pre-1900 Barber coinage uncirculated rolls tucked away, too.

[toyonakataro]

That's a cool story to hear.  It would have been exciting to see a roll of seated dimes.    So there might be a chance that even BU roll of coins from mid-19th centry would show up someday?

[MarkFeld]

Back in the 1980's, I saw a partial roll of uncirculated 1858 Half Dimes - I don't recall for certain, but think it had 20+ or 30+ coins in it. 

[toyonakataro]

Well, I wish I were with you then

That might partially explain the number of gem seated half dimes of that date.

 

 

[toyonakataro]

Please give me a call when you found another roll of half dimes before you open it.

[DWLange]

There were some really nice rolls of 1882 and 1883 dimes that came to auction in the early 1980s.  These are the ones referenced by Mark F, and coins from this source now grace many a type set.

It's not quite a 19th Century entry, but I was present at a coin show in San Francisco in 1977-78 when an amazing roll of 1908 cents was opened and sold as singles. I was the third or fourth person in line to buy, but I still scored a lovely specimen that remains my type piece for the bronze issue some 40 years later. It cost me $50, and I could have bought as many as I wanted at that price, but 50 bucks was still real money to me then.

[RWB]

Several "rolls" of 19th century US coins exist, including at least one date set of Philadelphia Mint Barber coins.  A relative - great grandson of a banker - has a roll each of 1899 & 1900 cents and nickels, put away as a centennial curiosity/novelty. There are many bank rolls and original US Mint bags of Morgan dollars. I've been shown groups of seated coins and gold whose coins all appear to have been gathered at the same time. Most 19th century coins did not get put into paper rolls by recipient banks. Local businesses requiring small change received it from their bank in small envelopes.

Quality of original groups of 19th and early 20thc century coins will be much superior to those after about 1934. (See the earlier post about 1912 nickels for more info.)

[bstrauss3]

It's certainly possible.

The earliest patents I'm aware of for coin wrappers are https://www.google.com/patents/US190903 and https://www.google.com/patents/US209985 from 1877 and 1878.

 

209985 is a patent for a machine:

Quote

My invention relates to a machine for manufacturing cylindrical pasteboard coin-wrapper-s; and it consists in a peculiar machine by means of which a cylindrical form is given to the coin-wrapper, and by which the ends of the coin-wrapper are closed after the same has been filled with coin, as fully hereinafter explained.

 

While 190903 is for the wrappers themselves (picture):

Quote

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE RETTIG, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Self- Counting Coin-Wrapper, of which the following is a full and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the wrapper before closing, and Fig. 2 is a similar view of the wrapper when sealed.

The nature of my invention relates to wrappers for rolls of coin; of equal denomination, so constructed and arranged that only a certain number of coins will find space therein, thereby avoiding mistakes and saving the labor of counting; and it consists of 'a flap of paper cloth or other suitable material, one end of which is secured upon the edges of about half the circumference of two pasteboard washers, being of equal diameter with the specific coin, and being placed such a distance apart to conform with the measurement, of the number of coins to be wrapped. The correct value of the coin being placed in between said washers, the flap is turned over it and pasted or sealed, and the edges of the flap, being out scalloping, are bent and pasted upon the faces of the washers.

It's certainly possible there are earlier patents, the patents of those days don't list the prior art.

[Conder101]

When the Matthew Boulton collection was sold by the family in the early 2000's, it contained an original roll of 1791 John Wilkinson Conder tokens.

The first US patent may be in the 1870's  but in the 1780's and 90's when Boulton packaged up coinage orders he shipped them in paper wrapped rolls packed in kegs.

[bstrauss3]

Yes, and one of the other early wrapper patents refers to an improvement on the common practice of wrapping coins in brown paper. Not patenting the wrapping of coins, but an improvement. That's one of the reasons it's so much fun to read the early patents. Another is that if you screw up by a digit or two, you can find the most amazing oddities...

[RWB]

Gold dollars destined for the Post Office were sometimes wrapped in paper rolls of $100. That made handling the tiny coins much easier.

[numisport]

I had a roll of 15-D cents but I spent them. Oh they were 2015-D cents