In General what do you feel would be a better investment. a Roll of coins from the U.S. Mint or a roll from the bank. For example. The George washington $1.00 are 35.95 on the mints site but I could get a roll from my bank for $25.00. I've never ordered from the mint before so I don't know if a roll of coins from them would be in better conditiion then a roll from my bank. I understand the roll from my bank would be comprised of all 4 presidents and the coins would be out of a bag which may yield less stunning results. what's your opinion?

For me, I would go for the bank roll, since with the mint, the moment you order them you lost $10.95 or 30.5% of your investment! You may be able to sell them if you don't open the roll, but once open, they are only worth face. At least with the bank you are paying face and can always spend them. Around here, the banks get the new rolls of dollars and they are all one president, and they are probably the same quality as the mint rolls. The main difference is you may not have a choice in mintmark/date/president with the bank, like around here, you get whatever they have. Just my 2c.

The better investment???

Leave the $25.00 AT the bank sitting in your savings account. Now, if one is interested in COLLECTING the presidential series, then buy the roll from the bank, search it for the best 2 or 3 coins, then spend the rest.

Bingo. There is no such thing as "investing" in common date circulating coins. That is collecting for whatever reason and you are likely to "loose money" - that is the return on these will be less than letting the dollars sit in a bank. Ikes and Bicentennial issues are a perfect example. Many saved these pieces. When I ran across these in collections I either advised people to take them to the bank or if forced to buy them paid 95% of face for my trouble to roll them and take them to the bank.

I doubt the Presidential coins will be much of a collectible for a while, unfortunately they are stamping them out in the millions and the collecting interests are low. Frankly the collectible market is over-saturated with all the garbage the mint is cranking out with the dollars, quarters, etc.

With the exception of stuff like the Botanic Gardens coins from several years ago that had small mintages, or something interesting like the bi-metallic $10 coin, US mint products do not appreciate well in the length of time most of us wish they would. In fact if you buy a roll of coins from the mint, they depreciate to little more than face value like driving a new car off the lot.

Okay. If you are collecting rolls as an investment and you don't intend to search them, then I say the mint. It will command a premium over other rolls of the same date, etc that arent from the mint. BUT if you sell after a year or two, you'll probably won't make up the 30.5% the mint takes from you.

If you intend to search the roll, I'd say buy mint rolls from dealers. After a few years, they'll want to get rid of them and will sell them for a bit over face. They won't be as cheap as bank rolls, but they won't be as expensive as direct-from-mint rolls. However, they'll still have the untouched products of the mint within.

The only benefit I see of searching a mint roll is that you may discover some new variety or find a batch of un-lettered edges. Of course, the chances of this are slim to none! That's why I suggest you buy unsearched rolls from a dealer after a few years. If it turns out that the Jackson dollar has a severe double-die AND you managed to find an unsearched roll of Jackson dollars, then you'd strike it rich. But wait til others search their rolls and discover the varieties before buying. You may spend your money on a roll o Jeffersons that have no noteworthy varieties.


But, as everyone else is suggesting, buying rolls as investments is not going to be profitable with this series IN THE NEXT 100 YEARS! No exaggeration!

Ouch, I feel like I got grilled, I only used those as an example because I happend to be at the mint site. That's why I underlined in general in the beginning of my post. The Pres Dollar was merely for elaboration. I was really asking because I'm considering buying some coins and forgetting about them so I can give them to my kids, so this would be an extremely long term investment. I'm not looking to make a million, and I know I wouldn't with the way the mint stamps stuff out.

If you are looking to save something for your kids, take that $25 or $35.95 and buy a couple circulated silver dollars (Morgans or Peace) and keep doing that until you save up a roll, then just repeat the process. Then you'd be leaving something for them that would at least be worth the silver in them!

Jeff is right.

Sorry if it seemed like we were grilling ya. We just don't want you wasting your money!

There right.

But if you still want roles then go to the bank. At worst You would break evan.

The better investment???

Leave the $25.00 AT the bank sitting in your savings account. Now, if one is interested in COLLECTING the presidential series, then buy the roll from the bank, search it for the best 2 or 3 coins, then spend the rest.


Hey bustchaser. I wanted to say that. My exact thoughts.

Everyone before me hit it dead on. Don't waste your money. Jeff gives good advice, if you just gotta buy coins to save for the kids, buy 1 of some thing pre 1932 and tuck it away.

Just to add one more thing, when I got back into collecting coins, about 1999-2000, I bought a ton of mint products, proof sets, proof silver eagles, commemoratives. Now I wish I had spent that on Carson City coins. In 2000 a 1875-CC twenty cent piece in F+ trended for about $100. Now it's pushing $500. The Commems that I paid $35 for in 2000, I'd be lucky to get my money back on.

More money than brains back then.

Wishful thinking This isn't back to the future II.

Wanna save something for your kids? Take the money and put it in a 529 or other college tuition plan. An education is the most valuable gift you can ever give them.

Oh I plan on doing all of that too! My parents never did any kind of saving for me so when I got out on my own they pretty much handed me a "good luck". I will never do that when I have children, but coin collecting is just such a neat thing to introduce a person to that I'll want to do this also. I think that I'll probably end up doing the morgan dollar idea. Dan769 Pretty much answered my question by stating that he purchased mint items and regrets it.

Kristofer,

Since you apparently don't have kids yet, please don't use that as an excuse to yourself to buy coins. That's really an oxymoron. You're new to coins and obviously excited about them. Good, they are neat. But don't rush head long into something you obviously don't know using urealized scenarios to rationalize your purchases. Take your time and study. Buy the books, learn to grade, learn the rarties and values, attend coins shows and the lectures there, find your true interests before you buy. If you do otherwise you will lose one heck of a lot of money.

Oh yeah, and make sure you are buying with truly excess income. Fully fund your 410K or IRA BEFORE you buy any coins. Coins are a luxury, an entertainment, not a necessity. Doing otherwise is galactically stupid.

Also if kids are truly interested in coins they will collect them on their own without much encouragement. My older two could basically care less for coins, but the three year old on the other hand absolutely loves anything remotely numismatic. She has a coin collection in a binder and loves looking through it all the time.

I'm amazed at how caring everyone is on this message board. I can see that you're genuinely concerned out of care. But believe me, this is an idea for the future. Not what I'll endeavor in now. I certainly respect the opinions of the parents who have first hand experience, I imagine it would be a huge dissappointment to find out that you spent all of that money and your kids aren't interested.

If we all spend a lot of $1 coins then the ones you and I pick up from the bank at face value may, may be worth something someday because chances are the ones people put aside will not be kept as nicely as the ones we keep!

Seriously if you thinking of not going overboard and buying some to give to your kids who could then give it to your grandkids someday then it might be a nice sentiment. However, just remember you have to hold onto and store those coins somewhere for years to come and if your kids don't like them they might dump them off or give them away at first chance.

I'd do as what others have said and only purchase what you want. Me, I like the presidential dollar coins so I pick them up at the bank for myself. I don't plan on selling them, but it may be fun to show someone someday my hopefully still nice and shiny collection!

The age of a coin has little bearing on its numismatic value, if you look at old roman coins, you can still get several types for very low price, because so many were made. Allot of U.S. coins fall into this catagory.

Understandably so, but as I stated earlier, pres dollars were a bad example on my part. My question was convoluted in the hysteria of presidential dollars.