MS per 100 Kennedy halfs in a federal reserve sealed bag 1 1

[LakeAnna]

What would an estimate be out of 100 Kennedy Halfs in a sealed federal reaserve bag end up being of MS or MS65 and above quality? 

1 in a 100, 5, 10? 

Clearly they would be UNCIRCULATED. But Mint State?

[powermad5000]

Mint State implies Uncirculated. Mint state is defined as the surface of a coin showing no signs of wear. MS and UNC are used interchangeably in the hobby.

Without going into semantics that are unnecessary as applying to your question, the answer in short is nobody really knows the answer to this. When was the bag sealed? Right after the coins were minted? If so, how were the coins placed in the bag? Dumped in? How was the bag handled after being sealed, roughly? How many times was the bag moved? Was the bag tossed around without any level of care? If so, when? One time while being moved? Many times?

The point I am trying to make is that bag has had a life of its own since being sealed. And it was handled and moved many times for it to end up in the place it is currently in now. Only the bag knows the story and the answers to all of those questions. So, depending on circumstances, there could be many at MS 65 if the bag was handled with care. And there could be none if the bag was handled roughly and improperly and possibly thrown around a little bit. If it is a Mint sealed bag you could make the statement that everything in the bag will grade at a minimum of MS 60, but after that, there is no real way of knowing the possible condition of all the coins in the bag without opening it up and checking each individual coin.

[LakeAnna]

Yes that all makes sense. I guess what I was aiming for is a MS coin representative of 1% of that year/mint or .01, or greater. I was attempting to put it into frame of reference.

Part of this other than curiousosity is also there seems to be very high supply of common modern coins in my lifetime at MS65 - 69. Would it be fair then to say a fairly high percentage remain MS grade level? I totally understand rareness when we go back as early as maybe 60s, and definitely into 1800s-1900. 

[RWB]

Original US Mint bags contained $1,000 in half dollars. The smallest quantity used for the Federal Reserve System was $250 (500 half dollars). Your bag is therefore fake.

In an original bag of halves, all 2,000 will be uncirculated (i.e. "Mint State".) When the FRB system re-bagged coins, they were usually all uncirculated if at the beginning of a year, but later were a mix of coins moving through commercial banks and FRBs.

[LakeAnna]

@RBW that's odd I purchased directly from us mint? With 100 coins in a sewn shut Federal Reserve bag with the Federal Reserve tag sewn into the stitching as well? 

[LakeAnna]

 

@RBW I just check the mint site and they sell the exact same thing. Mine is 2016, still sealed in shipping box to my dad. 

 

 

[Sandon]

   "Mint state" and "uncirculated" are synonymous.

   The reason that most modern coins that you see in certified holders are in higher mint state grades is that only such pieces have any chance of being worth the cost of certification. Knowledgeable submitters have substantial knowledge of grading standards themselves and only submit coins that they have reason to believe are worthy of submission. Even they often receive unpleasant surprises, and many of the coins they submit end up being sold for less than the cost of submission. Learning how to grade coins yourself is essential for success as a collector!

    Coins made for circulation, including those like yours sold in bulk to collectors, probably grade no better than MS 64 on average when removed from a mint bag. However, the vast majority of modern collectors' issues that are carefully manufactured and separately handled and packaged, such as proof and commemorative issues, grade MS or PF 69 or 70. Those graded "69" by grading services are often regarded as "culls"!

   A 2016-P or D Kennedy half dollar wouldn't be worth substantially more than the standard grading fees and related shipping and processing costs unless it graded MS 68, the highest grade awarded for either of these issues at NGC. See 2016 P 50C MS | Coin Explorer | NGC (ngccoin.com), 2016 D 50C MS | Coin Explorer | NGC (ngccoin.com). The "Modern Tier" grading fee alone per coin is $19, and in MS 65 each coin only has a retail list value on the NGC Price Guide of $12.50. (Grading wouldn't be worthwhile for coins that grade less than MS 67 or 68 even at dealers' bulk rates.) 

[LakeAnna]

@Sandon

 

Thank you for all that detail and explanation. I am thinking my dad got this because it was a very low mintage year in many many years. If I read correctly these were only sold through the mint and not put into general circulation. Does that sound correct? 

 

To date it remains sealed and untouched for many years. I can only guess he was speculating (like many probably did) if that was the case and got them and threw them in the safe. I will do just do the same. 

 

It's interesting RWB states it's fake. I truly doubt that given I have found the same thing currently sold through the mint. Even though kind of neat I guess if he purchased rolls instead there might be a slightly better chance of finding a higher quality one simply because how it would be stored.   

 

Not on this matter, I am still confused how many of fairly new coins receive a MS69 grade which I read are mass gradings (typicialy done by PT Collage employees on side job. Just gives me less confidence on the 69's in the collection. 

[RWB]

On 9/27/2024 at 12:27 PM, LakeAnna said:

 

@RBW I just check the mint site and they sell the exact same thing. Mine is 2016, still sealed in shipping box to my dad. 

 

 

OK. Now I see what you're talking about.

These are not commercial bags used for business. They are "tourist trap" bags assembled to sell at inflated prices to collectors and others. Each bag contains 200 half dollars and all the coins should be uncirculated (i.e., "Mint State"). The bags are filled at a contractor's facility from large scale packages shipped by the Mints. There is no assurance of freedom from damage or surface marks.

PS: No commercial bank will ever see these unless someone passes one across the counter. They are not a regular part of the FRB's coinage distribution system. The paper seal on the bag is a modified Treasury Department seal and not that of the Federal Reserve System. The Treasury seal looks like the one on your paper currency.

Edited 7 hours ago by RWB

[Henri Charriere]

On 9/27/2024 at 2:47 PM, RWB said:

These are not commercial bags used for business. They are "tourist trap" bags assembled to sell at inflated prices to collectors and others. Each bag contains 200 half dollars...

I believe these Mint bags are a bit too unwieldy to be sold to tourists. Two hundred halves is quite a haul.

Rather, I think these were produced for the on-line crowd. I would imagine a nice chunk of the change charged pays for postage + s/h.

I hope for the OP's sake, her bag contains coins that display a heretofore undiscovered error or similar anomaly.

[Sandon]

On 9/27/2024 at 1:11 PM, LakeAnna said:

I am thinking my dad got this because it was a very low mintage year in many many years. If I read correctly these were only sold through the mint and not put into general circulation. Does that sound correct? 

 

     The facts you state in the second quoted sentence are correct, but you are misinterpreting them. Each of the 2016-P and the 2016-D half dollars, along with all circulation quality issues from 2002 through 2019, were only sold directly to the public for a premium in rolls, bags and uncirculated coin sets. The reported mintage for each of the 2016 issues is 2,100,000 pieces, which may not include the 296,582 of each included in the uncirculated coin sets. This is not a low mintage, especially for coins that all ended up in the hands of collectors, dealers, and mass marketers. 

    This supply will likely fulfill the demand from collectors for several generations. If you are young, it might be worthwhile to save them, as it is possible that they will be worth some premium decades from now. I bought a two-coin roll set each year from about 2009 to 2018 and would be lucky to get my money back for them at this point.

[LakeAnna]

Thank you so collection value, and family value, not nessisary a chance there is something inside it worth opening to see. Since it cost nothing basically just coin value. So just leave alone.

[RWB]

On 9/27/2024 at 3:06 PM, Henri Charriere said:

I believe these Mint bags are a bit too unwieldy to be sold to tourists. Two hundred halves is quite a haul.

If you've come across a heard of tourists, especially the Southern Buffalo variety, they have the added mass to handle these little bags quite well!