I decided to do some penny roll hunting to help fill out a Whitman penny album I am working on (amongst other things). So I bought $10 worth of pennies from the local bank. I was disappointed in my findings. Out of 1000 pennies, I only found 4 wheats, and 2 Canadian pennies. The oldest of the 4 wheats was a 1919 in deplorable condition. Is this a typical ratio (4 in 1000)?
With the price of copper rising, all pennies prior to 1982 are being taken out of circulation by everyone. They now have a value of over 2 cents. You will see less and less coins in circulation prior to this date going forward.
Hit and miss for me, but yes wheaties and coppers are starting to get scarcer for me; though a couple months ago I found 2 or so rolls of all copper cents :thumb:
Searching lincoln rolls for wheats is admirable, but will be seldom rewarded. Focus on the copper if that floats your boat. I still get a couple rolls now and again from the grocery store or bank. But now I focus on saving the "gemmy" looking ones and take anything else as a bonus.
Generally speaking I'll find anywhere from 8 to 20 wheat pennies for every $25 worth of penny rolls from one of my local banks. I do $25 at a time because that's how the bank packages the rolls in boxes. I have gotten home and found that the entire box was new rolls of 2009s. I have also found a beautiful (XF+) 1888 Indian. Don't stop searching those rolls. It is time consuming but can be worth it. Here is the real trick, though. You need to befriend bank tellers and gas station attendants. You'd be surprised at how many wheats and how much silver those people come across. If they'll sell them to you cheap than you can get a good deal or you could get them for free (like me) or at face value. I walked into a gas station recently (I always check the little give-a-penny, take-a-penny dishes on the counters)and noticed a wheat penny in the little dish. I grabbed it and replaced it with a memorial cent, and then I noticed another...and then another and another. I asked the attendant if I could trade for 'em and she said, "You can have those. Do you want the rest?" And then she reached into her register and gave me about twenty more. Someone had spent a roll of 'em. I also have family and friends who find them and give them to me. All I'm saying is that if you look for them hard enough you WILL find plenty.
I get much better results.. Not sure why.. Out of a box of 50 rolls.. I guess I would average 100 to 200 .. I know I have done even better.. And I always keep any copper.. just to hoard.. I have a couple 60 pound sacks that I plan on looking through for errors.. Someday... Someday..... I always get a roll or two from the Store or gas stations.. But the Banks are the Best! I have 4 accounts and 4 banks.. Just so I don't wear out my welcome.. One Just for taking in the Junk..and getting cash.. and cont. the search.. I am lucky to have a job (Phone Support Tech) that allows my to work and look through rolls at the same time.. I can take a fair amount of time.. I give it 40+ hours a week.. And make a paycheck too!! LOL
That's awesome. Most people are surprised that I even still find them in rolls but like you know, Lather, they are still there. I was laughing the other day because I went to my bank to get some rolls and I actually took all of them from the teller. But I still had fifty more cents and I wanted more pennies so the teller slides her change dish over and asks if I want some loose pennies and I said yes. As she started to grab some I looked and sitting on top of the dish was a Franklin half sitting face up. LOL I said, "On second thought I'll take that." And she said, "Oh. This old coin? Ok." LOL I'm going to go out and get a job though where I can look through pennies at the same time. LOL You got the hook-up.
A teller told me one time that the closer a person gets to the big cities the better chance you have of finding more of what I was looking for and I took that advice and found 35 2009's in a box which was great for a best box ever for me.
4 Wheats out of 20 rolls is an excellent ratio. I've searched hundreds of boxes and my average is about 8 per box. Don't forget about BU Zincolns. For example, a BU roll of 1986-D's is $27 on CDN ask.
Wheaties yes but 99% in the 40's and 50's. IHD's= 1 out of gosh fifty to seventy five boxes. 1880 G4 at best. Pretty sad.
I have had similar results. From December, 2003 through January, 2005, realizing that "the year of the Lincoln cent" was coming soon and wanting to "get back to my roots" as a collector, I searched through just over $11,000 worth of penny rolls (that's just over 1.1 million pennies), almost all gotten from bank branches in $25 boxes. My average number of wheats per per box was between 7 and 8. However, as someone observed above, getting to know the tellers in the various branches, and treating them nicely and respectfully really paid off. Many of them got to the point where they were watching out for me, and holding rolls that customers brought in. I once got about 8 rolls of wheaties that were almost all pre-1940, and another time I got 4 rolls that were all 1951 through 1954 S mint coins that were all AU/BU. Of course, living in the SF Bay Area helped a lot with finding S mint cents. In the course of that 13-month period, I took about $125 worth of wheat cents out of circulation, not including the $35 worth of 56-D, 57-D, and 58-D cents, which I also kept. Two of those 56-Ds were actually RPMs.
Couple of days back, I bought few(about 90) rolls on Craig's. This guy have around 700 to 800 rolls all before 1984. He sold $1 for each roll. Out of 90 I bought, found 12 rolls(600) of wheats. And 99% of the remaining coins which I gone through are from before 1982. Still need to go through at least 40 to 50 rolls. I don't expect any wheats in the remaining rolls. Did I make a good deal? Can I buy more rolls?
Oh my days..I would be smiling from ear to ear if I had an opportunity like that and hope I had the money to buy them.. Im not a selfish or greedy person but I would try and get the whole lot..mind you,im the type of error collector which examines not just key dates and cherrypickers. I examine every single coin so I love to go through every and as many coins possible.your so lucky..[emoji12] [emoji106]
I still have a chance to buy few more rolls. But I am with two minds. The second pic is the boxes of rolls he have. The first pic are the rolls of wheats I found. Tried to look for whatever I can(like wheats, errors) in the rolls. But I am not an expert and may have missed few. Is there any source which tells me what to look for?
Im a beginner too and to be honest the red book is a must and highly recommended and there are so many sites online such as lincoln resource centre.com,and variety vista.com. Just when I think I have checked certain coin's. .whammy...I read about another variety and im checking them again and again..you will miss things but persistence pays off and trains the eye. The best advice I was given was to get a book and read read do more reading aswell as research online. It can put a strain on the eye's but if you dont look for it then you aint gonna find it.i know one thing and thats Loopy loves it Lots..[emoji13] [emoji3]
Another thing is if you find a seller and your happy with what he is selling then stick with him,ask for a discount of some sort if your buying more. I have been ripped off a few times when purchasing online and would love to be in your shoes but like I said,I am a begginner too and there are some amazing members on here which can give you better advice.see what others have to say.[emoji106]
