I recently ran accross an auction of unclaimed safe deposit boxes and one lot in particular interested me, it contained 55 rolls of so called "not searched" wheat pennies and one roll of nickels and some loose wheats and indian heads. Now I usually don't believe the claim of being unsearched but this is a state treasury auction and they have no reason to not tell the truth. This is what the website says about the sale:
"Each year the State Treasurer's Office receives the contents of safe deposit boxes from banks and other financial institutions that have been abandoned for at least five years.
The names of the contents’ owners are published in local newspapers and entered into the State's Unclaimed Property online database. The contents are then stored in the state's vault for at least three more years. If the owner or their heirs do not come forward to claim the contents, the Treasurer's Office holds an auction of the contents."
They also go on to say that the proceeds from the auction go into an account where it is held for the owner or rightful heirs.
So my treasure hunting nature got the best of me and I bid on and won the lot. It is described as containing the following;
55 rolls of wheat pennies (not searched)
1 roll of nickels
17 Indian head pennies 1887-1907
223 wheat penny
28 wheat pennies
Also there was this picture of the lot:
Now I'm not going to say what I had to pay for the lot because if it turns out to be all common dates, then I paid too much! But you never know...it was shipped today and I should get it by wednesday. I'll let you know how it turns out.
They came, but I have been harvesting soybeans and trying to finish today before the rain, so I'll post more tonight (friday) when I get a chance to finish going through them. Here is a picture of them when I took them out of the box. Many of the rolls are falling apart, the paper in the rolls seems to be very old and the tape is really dried out, like it was put on the rolls years ago.
Most of the rolls looked the same and searching through them I found what many people suspected, these were not totally unsearched rolls. Now they were unsearched by the sellers because of the very old dried out tape on them but someone put all 40's and 50's wheats with one or two pre 40 wheats in each roll. They were way to similar to not be staged by someone, probably a dealer who sold them to the person who put them in the safety deposit box. Another reason I know that they were staged is that there were 7 uncirculated 1955-S what are the chances of that. Also a lot of 1926 and 1919 and very few in the 30's. I did find a 1909 but not a VDB and several other years in the teens.
However......
There were three rolls that were different from the rest as they had been written on, here is a picture:
This is what I found in the roll of nickels, 40 silver war nickels:
The roll that said 1943 zinc coated turned out to be a very nice roll of 1943 pennies:
Then there was the roll that said Indian heads, and there were 50 indian heads in it, in addition to the 17 indian heads they listed for a total of 67 indian heads.
Also in the roll of indian heads there were these three, however the 1909's did not have an S on the back.
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So after the war nickels and indians I got my money's worth, if not for them I would have paid too much. Still it was a fun hunt.
"Each year the State Treasurer's Office receives the contents of safe deposit boxes from banks and other financial institutions that have been abandoned for at least five years.
The names of the contents’ owners are published in local newspapers and entered into the State's Unclaimed Property online database. The contents are then stored in the state's vault for at least three more years. If the owner or their heirs do not come forward to claim the contents, the Treasurer's Office holds an auction of the contents."
They also go on to say that the proceeds from the auction go into an account where it is held for the owner or rightful heirs.
So my treasure hunting nature got the best of me and I bid on and won the lot. It is described as containing the following;
55 rolls of wheat pennies (not searched)
1 roll of nickels
17 Indian head pennies 1887-1907
223 wheat penny
28 wheat pennies
Also there was this picture of the lot:
Now I'm not going to say what I had to pay for the lot because if it turns out to be all common dates, then I paid too much! But you never know...it was shipped today and I should get it by wednesday. I'll let you know how it turns out.
They came, but I have been harvesting soybeans and trying to finish today before the rain, so I'll post more tonight (friday) when I get a chance to finish going through them. Here is a picture of them when I took them out of the box. Many of the rolls are falling apart, the paper in the rolls seems to be very old and the tape is really dried out, like it was put on the rolls years ago.
Most of the rolls looked the same and searching through them I found what many people suspected, these were not totally unsearched rolls. Now they were unsearched by the sellers because of the very old dried out tape on them but someone put all 40's and 50's wheats with one or two pre 40 wheats in each roll. They were way to similar to not be staged by someone, probably a dealer who sold them to the person who put them in the safety deposit box. Another reason I know that they were staged is that there were 7 uncirculated 1955-S what are the chances of that. Also a lot of 1926 and 1919 and very few in the 30's. I did find a 1909 but not a VDB and several other years in the teens.
However......
There were three rolls that were different from the rest as they had been written on, here is a picture:
This is what I found in the roll of nickels, 40 silver war nickels:
The roll that said 1943 zinc coated turned out to be a very nice roll of 1943 pennies:
Then there was the roll that said Indian heads, and there were 50 indian heads in it, in addition to the 17 indian heads they listed for a total of 67 indian heads.
Also in the roll of indian heads there were these three, however the 1909's did not have an S on the back.
\
So after the war nickels and indians I got my money's worth, if not for them I would have paid too much. Still it was a fun hunt.