Tweet
I've been perusing the Lincoln Cent Resource for the last year and been waiting for the chance to get my feet wet in the Lincoln Cent world over something simple. But it looks like I have to skip 'simple' for the sake of relating my box find of this past week!
(As a preface, sorry, but this can't help but be a LONG post...!)
I've been buying boxes of pennies on a fairly regular basis for almost 3 years now. During that time, I estimate I've searched 500,000 pennies - mostly Canadian.
Two weeks ago I went to my bank to get 7 rolls of quarters (not for silver, just trying to complete a master Canadian set of nickel/steel quarters). While there, I decided at the last minute to get 2 boxes of pennies.
On Friday, I finally had the time to search the boxes. The first box was typical for what I get in a CAN $25 box: about 25-30% copper, about 250 US cents (total of copper and zinc) and 3 King George VI and 2 or 3 wheaties. Plus a few choice UNC's and a large selection of 60's dates for my roll hoarding. These are very typical results for the bank boxes I get.
Then, on to the second box. I opened the first roll and out popped a bunch of gray dried paint flecks, and about 10 King George and 15 wheaties! Ok... so I'm already ahead of the usual box results after only one roll! Then I noticed that the remaining 25 coins were all copper. I popped the second roll. Same results (including the paint flecks!). The pattern continued for all 50 rolls.
Along the way, I started noticing that many of the wheats were older than the 1930's thru 50's that I normally get. The first one to stand out was a 1926D. Then a couple of 1919's. Then a new record - for me - a 1911! Then a 1913 and a 1912 within seconds of each other. Then, I just about fell off the couch... (see picture #2. The coins are in roughly the order I remember finding them.)
When the shock wore off (about 2 days later!), I figured out the final totals:
(out of the 2500 pennies) as follows:
1) Copper - 2,494! (mostly US 1960's and nothing past 1978. The other six were late 2000's Canadian!)
2) Wheats - 696!!! Yikes! More than 1 in every 4 was a wheat penny.
3) King George VI - 231 pennies! (Every year from 1937 to 1952. 9 or 10 are in AU55 - AU58 condition.)
4) King George V - One!
5) Zero IHC!
I'll skip all the rest of the juicy details for now, and let a few photos tell the story. Then I'll post again with a written listing of the top finds. There are 2 or 3 that REALLY stand out!
The most amazing part looking back is I can't believe what ALMOST made it back into circulation if I hadn't grabbed those two boxes (i wasn't originally going to bother with pennies that day.)
(As a preface, sorry, but this can't help but be a LONG post...!)
I've been buying boxes of pennies on a fairly regular basis for almost 3 years now. During that time, I estimate I've searched 500,000 pennies - mostly Canadian.
Two weeks ago I went to my bank to get 7 rolls of quarters (not for silver, just trying to complete a master Canadian set of nickel/steel quarters). While there, I decided at the last minute to get 2 boxes of pennies.
On Friday, I finally had the time to search the boxes. The first box was typical for what I get in a CAN $25 box: about 25-30% copper, about 250 US cents (total of copper and zinc) and 3 King George VI and 2 or 3 wheaties. Plus a few choice UNC's and a large selection of 60's dates for my roll hoarding. These are very typical results for the bank boxes I get.
Then, on to the second box. I opened the first roll and out popped a bunch of gray dried paint flecks, and about 10 King George and 15 wheaties! Ok... so I'm already ahead of the usual box results after only one roll! Then I noticed that the remaining 25 coins were all copper. I popped the second roll. Same results (including the paint flecks!). The pattern continued for all 50 rolls.
Along the way, I started noticing that many of the wheats were older than the 1930's thru 50's that I normally get. The first one to stand out was a 1926D. Then a couple of 1919's. Then a new record - for me - a 1911! Then a 1913 and a 1912 within seconds of each other. Then, I just about fell off the couch... (see picture #2. The coins are in roughly the order I remember finding them.)
When the shock wore off (about 2 days later!), I figured out the final totals:
(out of the 2500 pennies) as follows:
1) Copper - 2,494! (mostly US 1960's and nothing past 1978. The other six were late 2000's Canadian!)
2) Wheats - 696!!! Yikes! More than 1 in every 4 was a wheat penny.
3) King George VI - 231 pennies! (Every year from 1937 to 1952. 9 or 10 are in AU55 - AU58 condition.)
4) King George V - One!
5) Zero IHC!
I'll skip all the rest of the juicy details for now, and let a few photos tell the story. Then I'll post again with a written listing of the top finds. There are 2 or 3 that REALLY stand out!
The most amazing part looking back is I can't believe what ALMOST made it back into circulation if I hadn't grabbed those two boxes (i wasn't originally going to bother with pennies that day.)
OOOMMMMGGG!!!! nice haul!!!
Comment