newbie super basic question

[TonyOhh]

I have ben tossing my pennies in a tub for years, I have about 50lbs of them and after lurking for awhile I think it is the pre 82 that seem to matter, so the question tonight is, if I have a bunch of them, should I keep them separated by year or decade ? I have no intent on selling them but prefer only sorting them once or twice, be gentile now..........turning from hoarder to "collector" :)

[GrumpyEd]

It's up to you.
Sorting by decade is ok for searching, better than random.
If I had a bunch I'd prefer them rolled by years and mintmark so I can search one group (year/mm) while looking up the varieties for that coin.

After searching them if you're sure you won't search them again then no sorting needed, just put em in bags or bricks as copper cents.

[willbrooks]

... be gentile now......... :)

Antisemitism isn't cool. :angel:

As for your question, I suggest if you are going to begin searching the cents for varieties, separating by year is a great idea. I highly recommend searching solid date quantities when starting off. It makes it much easier to spot when something is different about a coin when you are looking at the same date/design over and over. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

[coppercoins]

It is not true that only those prior to 1982 count. ALL of them count and are equal in importance.

The answer is to definitely sort them by year, but the way I do it is to sort by the last digit in the date first. So 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009 all go in the same pile. Only ten tubs, and it's easy to sort the decades apart when you're ready to look through them.

[TonyOhh]

Antisemitism isn't cool. :angel:


Oyy Vey :) I am a Pastor too :)