Buying Mint Bags

I was thinking about buying a mint bag to look for errors.
Looking at the www.usmint.gov I see they sell say a mint
bag of 200 Kennedy Halves for $135. With shipping
this comes out to $0.70/coin. Obviously I would be
chucking a bunch of money away if I just deposited them
at the bank when I finished. It also seems like a waste to
do this as presumably these coins would be classed as
uncirculated right? I have seen mention that coins in
bags are classed as circulated but then grading books
talk of bag marks on uncirculated coins.
Clearly there is some premium one would pay for the
entertainment value of going through them. Not sure it's
$40 though.
So I guess you could card them up and try selling them
on ebay (say in P+D pairs). People seem to do this but
shipping has to kill off the market because any buyer
is likely to pay more for the shipping than the coins are
worth. Selling stuff on ebay has to be a pain as well
when you factor in all the preparation and going to the
post office.
Maybe you could select the very nicest examples
and get them slabbed. Costs are probably high here
(heard $12/coin I think) and I am not sure just how many
examples in a bag would grade high (maybe none after
it's been in a mail van).
The mint still has 2001 bags for sale so I expected these
coins to be low priced. The 2005 red book lists the P
at $10 in MS-63. So that doesn't make sense to me
unless the quality of coins in bags is worse than this.
Obviously red book prices are some old snapshot of
prices etc.
Up until this point I have spent most of my time looking
at circulated coins I got for face value from the bank.
So has anyone every bought mint bags to go through.
What did you do with the remains etc? What's
the coin quality like in bags etc? Can you get bags
cheaper etc?
Neill.

"Neill Clift [MSFT]" wrote in message
...

The mint still has 2001 bags for sale so I expected these
coins to be low priced. The 2005 red book lists the P
at $10 in MS-63. So that doesn't make sense to me
unless the quality of coins in bags is worse than this.
Obviously red book prices are some old snapshot of
prices etc.
Neill.


I believe that the 2001Ps initially were only available in mint sets, up
until the last few months, so their price still reflects that "scarcity".
Now that they are available in bags (and I think even released to banks)
they should be worth something nearer to the 2002 - 2004s.

One way you may be able to get rid of your excess would be an "FS" on RCC.
I can always use another roll of uncirculated halves if priced near your
cost. Of course you cherrypick them first. Just don't call them "LQQK -
UNSEARCHED". ;-)

Pat

What's
the coin quality like in bags etc?

The problem with bags is that the coins slam against each other all the time,
and this inevitably results in surface ticks, nicks, bruises, contusions. The
bagged coins also rattle down a chute together into the bags. The heavier the
coin, the harder they slam together.

For that reason, the highest quality uncirculated coins tend to come from US
Mint Uncirculated Sets, which receive special handling.

Regards,
Tom

Not exactly related to your question, but very interesting is a story
from the Decemeber 2004 issue of COINage magazine. The article is
called "Chasing Kennedy's" on page 43, a lady named Mary Bickerson
spent $40,000.00 dollars on circulated Kennedys. Her initial order was
for $10,000.00 dollars in coin from her bank, thats 600 lbs of coin.
After going through 2400 lbs of 50 cent pieces she assembled her
collection of circulated halves from 64 to present, additionally she
received several silver proofs and mint set coins in the plethora of
$500.00 dollar boxes. (One $500.00 dollar box weighs 30 lbs)