I was at the shoppette today and I received .68 in change after my pruchase. To my surprise I saw the all too familiar wheat stalks in my hand. Of course my first response before flipping it over was to chant 14-d , 14-d, etc. Although it was a D it was not my 14, it was a 52. But as I sat in my car I wondered, why so few wheaties are in circulation these days. Up until 82 the metal was the same composition, and even now I can find plenty of copper cents in change, so its not melt value the way it was with silver coins. Was it just that people hoarded them out of amusement, curiousity, etc. Or was it that collectors pulled them out of circ en masse, or have they just been overwhelmed by the sheer billions of cents coming out of the mints these days. Any and all ideas and thoughts are welcome on the subject, just something to ponder, while I watch the rain through the front window.
I think people just pull them out of circulation when they find them. I bet there's not many people who don't have at least a handfull of them someplace, even though most don't otherwise collect coins. I guess it's because it's a coin that was discontinued before most of us were born that seems to hold their fascination and uncontrollable desire to hang onto them (no offense to those who were alive during their issue). Guy~
You would be shocked at how many people are hoarding Copper coins and waiting for the lefting of the ban on their distruction by melting. A few new web sites are out there discussing just that. Some on those web sites discuss having garbage cans full of them. I think one of them is http://realcent.forumco.com There they discuss hoarding Copper, Nickel, etc coins for metal purposes and no one cares or knows the difference in coins, just metal. Of course there are many with jars, cans, boxes, etc of old coins put aside for a rainy day. I knew a kid that buried a pile of pennies(cents) and never found them again. Many are lost in forest, parks, beaches. Some are made into trinkets. What has happened to coins over the years is fantastic. So that is why you find so little in change.
I also think what you said about them being overwhelmed is true. Nowadays billions of coins per-year are minted. the chances of finding a coin from the 50's is slim by itself, add in the factor of collectors, and all the billions of modern coinage, it becomes even less likely. Recently I found a '57-D in change. and it was the first one for a long time that I've found. Also, consider the times you get cents back in change, and how often you get change back. Back when I worked with cash registers, and other money. the likelyhood of me finding something good was increased... maybe a hundred fold. So it depends how often you get money too.
It's also the old "it'll be worth something to someone someday" mentality. As Carl and others have said, there are jars and cans and drawers all accross america filled with wheaties. IF and when copper prices go up and the melting ban is lifted, I suspect that "unsearched" rolls of wheaties and '59-'82 cent rolls will all be worth the same price - MELT value. I just pulled out the Blue Book. In 1925, there were almost 140,000,000 1925-P cents made. Oooooohhhh. That's special. Real, real special. That's 25 times as many 2004 Sac dollars!!!!! But this time, the government was clever and got rid of the lincolns by releasing them into circulation!!!!
...and in car wash vacuums! I have a car wash and get 12-15,000 cents out of the vacuums and off the ground each year. I give a bag(8-10,000) to "Project Graduation" every year, and gave 3 grandkids each a bag last year at Christmas. It still amazes me how much money is just "sucked away". lol
Of course wheaties get pulled, they can be sold for more than face value to collectors...dealers probably buy a lot of them over face too because they can make a profit on them....
Pocketchange, but remember we just had a thread the other day about those 82P clad coins. Mintage does come into play, but not always, regarding the cents try finding a nice 86D in circulation. When you do you look at the reverse and almost always you will find the OF worn. Just look at the greysheet for prices on rolls and the most expensive ones are from the 80s where mintage is high. Now regarding wheats I still find them but most of them are very common 44P/56D or worn. I get more excited finding a choice 84-86 Memorial then a worn wheat. Also those guys hoarding copper are smart but I just could not run cents through machines without looking for errors or choice coins from the 80s.
Happening to currency too People, even non collectors, do pull older stuff even if they have no idea what it might be worth. Most think it's worth a ton until told otherwise. This is actually what got me into currency. Before they started printing "big head" notes I went through a lot of money at work and rarely saw anything that spectacular in change. Sure, the occasional Merc, war nickel even an Indian cent but considering how much change I went through it wasn't much. The bookeeper went to the bank one day and got 11 1950 series' 20 dollar notes. Knowing I was into coins she told me about them. I bought them all, then bought a blackbook to get a rough idea and to learn about grading. Put em up on ebay with big pics, my grade and a TRUE explanation. Started them at a price to cover my fees. Well, they all fetched $26-28. Until the "bigheads" were firmly in place I pulled a LOT of older notes out. Easier to identify due to size. People have been pulling the coins forever it seems and now it's happening to currency. How often do you see a thread like "Got a 1969 bill today" on CoinTalk? It's kind of the same thing when you think about. The old "bills" are disappearing fast so people pull them. It's old and it's different and many people see that be it coins or currency.
Did you really say "shoppette"? Servicemember? just curious I manage to snag a silver nickle and one wheat cent from the jaws of circulation this past week at our hospital DFAC and shoppette......ended up giving both to one of the cashiers because she loves old coins...... When I told her the nickle was silver, she about tackled me to give me a thank you hug lol :hug:
I went through $5.00 or cents yesterday and I found about 14 or so wheaties, probably $2.00 of pre 1982, exactly 50 1982's (I save them, for some reason...) and the rest were more recent. They are out there. As a side, I went through 3 rolls of nickles, foud a 1939, 4 silver, and an alomost complete set of westward journey nickels (I'm short a ocean view D), so it was a pretty good afternoon!
What really fascinates me is that the mintage for cents each year is approximately enough for 30 per US citizen, and has been so for a long time. So, the average person needs 30 new cents per year, which you could interpret to mean they save / lose / take out of circulation somehow 30 cents every year.
They do lose that many-- I metal detect and find hundreds every year. You should see a zinc cent after 6 months in the ground! Pure garbage.
