We study the Laplacian coflow and the modified Laplacian coflow of $G_2$-structures on the $7$-dimensional Heisenberg group. For the Laplacian coflow we show that the solution is always ancient, that is it is defined in some interval $(-infty,T)$, with $0<T<+infty$. However, for the modified Laplacian coflow, we prove that in some cases the solution is defined only on a finite interval while in other cases the solution is ancient or eternal, that is it is defined on $(-infty, infty)$.