150 pounds of pennies

my wife and i have been putting pennies in crocks, jars, etc. for over 15 years and now have about 150 lbs. of them [ wheat and newer ones ]..i have always looked for silver in change, but didn,t bother to check the pennies we recieved in change...checking the newer dates for errors and such looks to be a huge undertaking, have any of you endeavored in a penny seach of this many coins and did it pay off? i can use my engraving microscope to check them...

 

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Wow...Bill...that is going to take a looooonnnnnggg time to go though 150 lb of cents..
I don't know if it would be worth it looking at them for errors and such...I think if they were any of the bigger errors you would have seen them...like struck on the wrong planchet or off center...but maybe I'm wrong.
If it was me I would cash them in a go for a trip!!!!

Speedy

 

if you have the time go for it, but before you start get yourself a coin guide so you can be positive you wont pass anything up.

 

I spent a couple of evenings going through just a pound!

IMHO, I would start by separating them into wheat or memorial, and also sort by decade at the same time. Then I would start sorting each decade for key dates and/or better grades. I bought an inexpensive coin roll funnel and paper rolls, and rolled all the common date and low grade coins, noting the decade on the wrapper.

Almost all of the Memorial cents will be worth no more than face value, unless they are in UNC, or a select few rarities, so take them to the bank, and enjoy a night out (or more) with the proceeds.

 

Hey...with $300 I could think of a few nice places near home but still away where no one would find me and I could come home with $$$.....

Even $300 would buy a nice coin

Speedy

 

No way.....!...this is a place where I could watch deer and turkey all day for 2-3 days and there is a coin shop near by....not far from me...and $300 would take me there and back...
But these places are all in the great place of Kentucky...so you wouldn't want to know about it....

Speedy

 

Bill,

Searching large quantities of Wheat and Memorial Cents can be tedious but also can be rewarding! I search thousands of Wheat pennines each week and I usually find plenty of nice dates that are worth a slight premium as well as quite a few errors. In the last two week alone, I have searched some 4,500 Wheat Cents and have found about 60 coins with RPM Errors, Strike Through Errors, Lamination Errors and some that have minor doubling including a bunch of 1953-P and 1955-P Poor Man's Double Dies. Although I have not found any Key Dates, I have also found about 300 harder to find early dates and even Semi-Key Dates (from 1909 to 1940) that always bring a higher premium. Searching Memorial Cents can also have it's rewards since there were tons of coins produced from 1959 through present day with large and small cuds, significant Die cracks, RPM errors, Off-Center Strikes, Double Struck errors, Die Clash errors, Machine doubling and even Doubled Die doubling.

Like SCnuss said, sort the coins out first separating the Wheat cents from the Memorial Cents. You can then sort each type by known dates of Error, Variety, Semi-Key and Key Dates. Do as much of the sorting by eye if possible and save the tedious work of Error and Variety searching to your engraving microscope or Gem Loupes.

There is a lot to learn from searching Wheat and Memorial cents which can be used to an advantage in searching other denominations of coins. I have to so all of the sorting and searching by myself but if your wife is willing to help you out, then it can be more fun, educational and rewarding for both of you! Well I better go for now, as you have approximately 21,100 (give or take a 100 or so) coins to start searching!

Good luck and happy searching!


Frank

 

Sorting that many coins will be a job, but like other have said it will be both rewarding and educational and if you don't go through them all you will always wonder what if......
I sort anywhere from ten to twenty thousand pennies a week and you do have to have a system. You can sort them into wheats and memorials but then you will be going through all those coins twice. Just take your time and look at each and every coins once and then move on to the next. Take a few weeks just a hour or two a night or day and go through them all. Because fifteen years ago and even ten years ago there were not as many coin collectors as they are today so you might be surprised at what you may find. Good luck and let us know what you find.

 

Man - I would love to have 150 lbs of pennies to sort through! I usually do about 2500 cents a night, so if it were 30,000, it would take about two weeks! That'd be awesome!

I would personally go through them, but that's just me - I have a special affinity for cents over most other coins!

~AJ

 

Well, we're right next to Indiana, where the Kentucky annual coin convention is held.

 

For instance - Wexler lists over 130 different RPMs for the 1960-D cent. Using a die life of 500,000 to 1,000,000 stikes per - and a mintage of 1.5 billion calculates to about 8 RPMs per hundred. Include Double Dies, offstrikes and other errors and varieties you could easily add another 4 per hundred. 12% ain't bad. An average selling price of about $2.50 a piece (BU) yields about $30.00 bucks worth of variety and error coins plus the $.88 cents face value of the remaining ain't a bad ROI.

 

Well...I'm here for one thing
And then I also know a guy that has some World Gold coins...
And then...Kentucky is the best place in the world...

Speedy

 

*cough* *cough*

Now, Speedy don't get something started here . . .

OKLAHOMA RULZ!

 

GDJMSP,

Can I come out there to play! I have a 7MM Ultra Magnum, a Benchrest 7MM Magnum and a .264 Winchester Magnum, all setup for long range shooting. I have never hunted Elk or Moose and sure would like to take a nice Bull Elk.


Frank

 

150 lbs. of pennies

thank everyone for their replys,i,ll let you know how it turns out, my wife said she would help go thur them...all of you have been super nice to me since i joined the forum, so i plan on giving away a hobo nickel before christmas..i think i,m supposed to do it on a another thread site, but i,ll let everyone know...

 

Hi All,
Let me put it this way. I usually find about $50.00 worth of stuff in every $50.00 bag of cents.

Keep in mind the high worth of the 1998, 1999 and 2000 type 2 Lincolns. Those are the ones mistakenly struck by proof dies. The 1999 is a $500.00 + coin. The other two are in the $20.00 to $30.00 range depending on condition. Just looking for those alone could be worth every second. As an example, I found an MS 63+ 1984D DDO Lincoln worth about $50.00 in the bag I searched last week.

You need to get familiar with books like the Cherrypickers' Guide to rare die varieties by Fivaz and Stanton. The possibilities in 150 LBS of pennies are endless and could be very much worth searching through

Have Fun,
Bill

 

Originally Posted by Huntsman53,
Quote;

I have never hunted Elk or Moose and sure would like to take a nice Bull Elk.

-----------------------------------------------------

Whenever I hear someone say something like that, it always reminds me of that line in the movie Jeremiah Johnson. When Will Geer says " Never understood why people were down there feeding on pork when they could be up here feeding on elk"