Midas

You see a lot of ads on eBay for "unsearched lots". My contention is that these lots have been searched and cherry-picked many times over. I, too, have a gallon pickel glass jar that is half full with wheaties that were the result of me going through "unsearched" lots. Who knows? Years from now when I am gone, somebody is going to list these very coins on eBay as "Unsearched Lincolns...found in an old man's house!"

I was reading David W. Lange's "The Complete Guide to Lincolns Cents" and he published surveys of 5,000 circulated Lincoln cents for the following years of 1937 and 1943. These "unsearched" lot results were from over 60 years ago!

Year 1937--1943

1909-P 14 17
1909 VDB 6 6
1909-S 1 0
1909-S VDB 1 0
1910 41 41
1910-S 7 0
1911 26 21
1911-D 8 1
1911-S 7 0
1912 15 23
1912-D 5 1
1912-S 8 1
1913 17 10
1913-D 9 9
1913-S 13 2
1914 24 19
1914-D 2 0
1915 5 8
1915-D 13 10
1915-S 10 0
1916 27 28
1916-D 27 14
1916-S 22 9
1917 53 70
1917-D 54 25
1917-S 64 6
1918 74 94
1918-D 42 15
1918-S 49 13
1919 131 162
1919-D 76 24
1919-S 183 64
1920 93 115
1920-D 54 27
1920-S 104 9
1921 8 23
1921-S 56 5
1922-D 7 4
1923 19 28
1923-S 33 2
1924 21 43
1924-D 4 1
1924-S 45 1
1925 36 59
1925-D 45 10
1925-S 150 7
1926 44 86
1926-D 49 22
1926-S 31 1
1927 40 90
1927-D 49 11
1927-S 83 2
1928 42 104
1928-D 61 13
1928-S 104 9
1929 47 114
1929-D 72 28
1929-S 488 10
1930 34 198
1930-D 88 27
1930-S 315 7
1931 4 16
1931-D 3 9
1931-S 36 0
1932 1 3
1932-D 29 6
1933 2 7

That's enough...years 1934 to present dates of this survey have been left out as you get the point.

The 1937 survery was conducted in Salt lake City, Utah and the 1943 survey was conducted in Illinois.

Here's what they said over 60 years ago:

"As can be seen from the tables, the number of scarce date cents in circulation is rapidly declining. There are not enough desirable Lincoln cents in circulation to justify spending time looking for them...so if anybody else has an idea of going to through the local bank's supply of cents just can forget it."

Remember these were searched over 60 years ago. Now even though these results are not scientific, they show how key dates were cherry picked quickly over this 6 year span.