wheat harvesting

[Dick]

For those of you who like to "harvest wheats", I have found a source that has given me better condition, a much better cross-section of dates, and has allowed me to fill in manf hloes in my folders! I will not post the sellers ID. here, but if you want to know, PM me, and I will share. I have just made my third order with him/her, as the case may be. Shipping is FAST. The price depends on what you order. In some cases S*H is free.
Dick

[GarryN]

Speaking of wheat harvesting, my mother-in-law's friend has a friend whose late husband collected coins and she turned over 5 boxes of coins for me to look thru and determine if anything was valuable. One box has some old whitman albums that have no valuable coins in them. The other four boxes are made up of cents to half dollars, each enclosed in a 2x2 manila envelope.

I went thru about 100 cents yesterday and I just wanted to cry. Each date and mint mark is represented so far from 1909 thru 1939. 2 to 5 each. Except for the real rare ones. No 1909-S, No 1914-D, no '31-S. No 1922 cents at all. There is one 1914-S. Every coin has been harshly cleaned and/ or polished and many show signs of corrosion. Many have a gritty film on them. It is possible the coins were cleaned and then placed back in the envelope while still wet. The grades on these coins would have ranged from AG to EF. No RPMs and no signs of doubling, altho I am not an expert of the less obvious doubling characteristics.

I also looked at some war nickels, in the same envelopes and those all look horrible too. I also have three tubes of war nickels. Some are corroded and the others have the familiar black patina. I hope to find a 1943/2 P or an RPM for what its worth.

This is the second time I have offered to help and its just too depressing.

[Dick]

Garru, I feel for you, but I can't quite reach you! That woild make anyone sad. people just don't know, what to do with coins, until they become collectors, then they are horrified at what "other folks" have done to them! An example of this: I was allowed to go thru about 30,000 wheats recently. All in bags by mint, and decades. The '09-39's were kept aside. The few I came across were in a shipment from back East, three boxes. Nothing much there except they were all "P".. Later, after the owner recovered them, I was asked if I wanted to go thru about 30, uncirculated rolls. Sure! Why not? I found 15 tubes that had been fulled with '56-D cents, and had some oily substance in them. I had to cut the coins out of the tubes, because they were so tightly bound. NONE of them were salvageable, due to pitting! I think they were all uunc, when placed in the tubes. I still have them. There were some '62, 63 and a few 54's. All were rpm's, or MD's. The ROPM's, and varieties were give to me, because the owner is not a collector, just a seller.
Dick

[coop]

Some cleaning ruin coins, but seldom known problems are also putting them in the envelopes. The mess the coins up as well. Something from the paper affects the BU coins and turns them ugly. I like 2X2's best and flips you have to be careful to get the right ones or you will have PVC problems if the are the soft ones.
The tubes that dick mentioned may have been cleaned and then put away and the solution may have reacted with the plastic tubes. A lot of the older tubes shrunk around the cents, but they usually just made them harder to open. Storing coins in a damp/cold place can mess them up also. So it could be one of the reasons or all of the reasons.

[GarryN]

very true, coop, many of these coins have been so harshly cleaned you can see the hairlines without magnification. When I track down my digital camera I will post a few pics.

I understand the owner was collecting these since the 1930's so there was no guidance for the average guy on how to care for coins.

I am going thru them all with a 10x loupe and I've found no varieties so far. There are many from the 50's so maybe a few will pop up. I am still looking for that 1943 copper or 1944 steel.

[GarryN]

here are some examples of what I have been looking at. Almost all dates and mintmarks represented. Most look like this. Here is a 1917. You cam see the hairlines from the harsh cleaning.

[GarryN]

Here is a 1937 . Hairlines more evident. This coin was proabably AU when it went in the envelope.

[eagames]

Harshly cleaned ones like that 1917 retone but still forever have that shine from cleaning.

[Dick]

Ed, tell me about it! The last 13 rolls I just went thru, jhave a lot of the cleaned ones. Someone must like ajax, or maybem a small wire rbush, to remove the crud, then polish it with a shine rag.
Dick

[GarryN]

yes the owner of these coins went thru alot of trouble to clean them and place them in envelopes. I have a photo of the envelope in the 1914-S topic.