UNUSUAL MONEY BAGS

I compiled a photo gallery and list of Federal Reserve Bank bags published on the Newman Numismatic Portal as The Incomplete Guide to Federal Reserve Bank Coin Bags. A week ago the guide listed 228 different bags and had 118 photos. This week a reader sent me images of a couple of interesting unlisted bags.

Both were issued by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank and both are marked, "RETURN THIS SACK." What, you may ask, is the difference between a bag and a sack?

One of the sacks is prominently marked "$100 / SILVER." The standard value for a Federal Reserve Bank bag was $1000. This suggests that a sack is smaller than a bag. However, the sack is marked "C" which would be about 9 x 15 inches for a standard bag.

Federal Reserve Bank bags are not marked with the coin denomination and were not marked as Silver. This suggests that a sack marked silver was used after 1964 when coins stopped being 90 percent silver.

What would be the value of a $100 sack of silver? Now that the bullion value of coins exceeded the face value, I doubt if the FRB would sell them for face value.

The other bag is marked "4" and other FRB bags marked "4" are 8 x 14.25 inches. However, these are not standard sizes. Some No. 4 bags are as much as 9 x 17 inches.

I can recall attending coin shows in the mid 60's when dealers were buying up huge quantities of silver certificates. These could be redeemed for silver granules up until June 24, 1968. The Kansas City Federal Reserve bank was not a redemption center so the $100 silver sacks would not have been used for redemption of silver certificates.

I know that the Treasury stopped selling silver dollars on March 26, 1964. I am familiar with the GSA sale of silver dollars in 1972 to 1974. What did the banks do with bags of silver coins with a melt value that exceeded the face value? I understand much of the remaining coins were melted to recover the silver. Did they ever sell them to the public at a premium? Is this an explanation for the Kansas City silver sacks?

I believe that United States Mint coin bags and Federal Reserve Bank coin bags have a place in numismatic history. I suspect the Kansas City FRB silver sacks are part of that history. I am sorry that I can't tell their story.

Can any E-Sylum reader tell the story? Are there other Federal Reserve Bank sacks out there waiting to be reported?

To read Pete's bag books on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
The incomplete guide to Federal Reserve Bank coin bags (https://nnp.washu.edu/Documents/Detail/the-incomplete-guide-to-federal-reserve-bank-coin-bags/1329261)
The incomplete guide to United States Mint coin bags (https://nnp.washu.edu/Documents/Detail/the-incomplete-guide-to-united-states-mint-coin-bags/1340847)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: U.S. MINT COIN BAG GUIDE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n13a06.html)
NEWMAN PORTAL ADDS U.S. MINT COIN BAG GUIDE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n13a15.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web