That is an excellent question! Many holders and the accompanying documentation were stored with the original coins and mailing envelopes immediately after being purchased. Many of these items went straight into a vault or safe deposit box, along with the coins until it became time to disperse them. Remember, at the time of their issue, these particular items (the envelopes, the papers and the like) had NO value whatsoever. The overwhelming majority of items were simply discarded. Its only conjecture on our part, but that is where we believe the majority of these items come from, but not all. There are also very limited numbers of items that were unused by the committees that distributed these coins. These long-disbanded committees have been the source of additional items into the marketplace.

2. In your opinion, what is the MOST common holder and which is the LEAST common?

There is quite often a geographical answer to that question, but from our vantage point, the most common commemorative coin holder is the 1925 Lexington pine box. Situated here in New England, we have had well over 150 different Lexington boxes at one time or another. It took some aggressive purchasing to acquire that many examples, but we did it many years ago. Some early commemorative publications estimated the number of surviving specimens at a little over 500 boxes. We believe that number is too low. We feel that the more accurate number of surviving specimens is closer to 1,000 boxes. While it is not unusual to see a handful of Lexington boxes at a large New England coin show, it would be very unusual to see that many routinely at a West Coast coin convention. That estimate of 1,000 boxes certainly does NOT include the FAKE Lexington boxes that surfaced into the marketplace about 15 years ago. If you think that they are all gone, think again! We purchased one within the last year on eBay, being sold by a California coin dealer as genuine. He did not know that fake boxes even existed until we educated him. When we feature the Lexington Commemorative coin box on this web site, we will include additional information on how to determine if your Lexington box is genuine or a fake!

With respect to the least common holder, that is a very difficult question to answer. There are numerous commemoratives for which the marketplace has never seen an original holder. That, however, does not mean that they do not exist! It simply means that no one has found one yet or no one has recognized that a particular holder should be associated with a particular coin. On the rarer end, I would place such rarities as original 1920 Pilgrim cardboard boxes, the rare and elusive Panama Pacific copper frames, the exceedingly rare Hawaiian sandblast proof box, or the York County maps containing original coins. All original and genuine examples of these holders will put a crimp into most enthusiasts' budgets. But while they are rare, they are still somewhat available!