Unsearched Wheat Cents (Please read before commenting!)

Hey Folks, please read the whole post before commenting (especially if your only comment is "there's no such thing as unsearched wheat cents")

For those of you (all two of you I believe) who are still following my mountain of Lincoln cents that I've been sorting (https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-do-1-200-lbs-of-lincoln-cents-look-like.312101/), I've almost filled this container of wheat cents and will soon start sorting them and looking for key dates, errors and varieties. The container has at least 2,000 wheat cents. I know this because I have a coin counter and fit over 2,000 cents in another one of these containers before it was full. I have seen the dates on a few of these, as I don't always find them wheat stalks up, and I admit to sometimes peeking at the date. I've seen everything from 1909 to 1958. I also have a couple IHC that I found that I tossed in there. I have not looked at any of these for more than a second or two before tossing them into this container. This is truly the closest I will likely ever get to "unsearched rolls" of Lincoln Cents. I am not sure what to expect, but I was curious to hear what you think this container could be worth? What are the odds of finding a key date or significant error? What would you pay for such a container (no, I'm not selling or advertising this, I just want to hear your thoughts).

@Paddy54 @Rick Stachowski @cpm9ball @furryfrog02 @sakata @BooksB4Coins @USCoinCollector42 @Michael K @paddyman98 @Galen59 @MatthewT @Pickin and Grinin @NLL @onecenter

 

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I've seen bags of 500 sell for around $25 around me. That being said, I don't know how "unsearched" they are.

 

I was thinking on the same lines .
5 cents a piece and that's if they are un-searched .

I do think these ones are un-searched .
That's also cause I know the OP ..

 

Many years ago there was a guy called Budgood who sold bags of 5,000 for about $325.
I bought one and found a lot of nice wheat cents in that bag.

 

I very recently helped a non-numismatic friend of mine liquidate his deceased fathers collection. It was a massive 80 year old collection. One of the items was this deceptively small looking container (think very large pumpkin) of wheats. We could only move the thing with a hand truck. My buddy didn't have any interest in sorting/ebay/whatever... His heart was still broken over losing his dad and just wanted it all liquidated. A very fair dealer I do 80% of my business with purchased the entire collection. I believe the wheats were weighed and averaged the number of cents and sold at 1.75X face. I can say with all the confidence in the world this was a hundred pounds or better of unsearched wheats. They are still out there.

 

Personally, I’d have bought that container for that price just to go through it.

 

The chances of finding anything significant, be it a key or valuable error, is exceedingly low. While there's always a possibility (short obvious instances), such coins are valuable and very rarely encountered in the wild for very good reason. Not having personally searched through such a small amount simply doesn't increase the buyer's chances sufficiently to warrant any real premium.

Unfortunately, while they may arguably by called "unsearched" (at least in part and by you), it's not like they been sitting untouched in grandma's change jar since 1961. Perhaps you could find someone willing to pay up by offering them as such, but is it worth it? In my opinion, no... it isn't, and even five cents per is way too high (again imo), especially if they would be sold on an eBay-type venue where an unhappy buyer can cause more grief than a very modest profit is worth unless this is now the average honestly-offered going rate. 2.5-3x used to be about right, but things may have changed over the last 6-7 years. Whatever the market rate for generic wheats is for your particular venue is what they're worth imo.

I'm not sure what your greater goal is, but if a regular seller sometimes it's more fruitful to not try to eek out every last cent on the items we sell. If you sold the lot to someone at an average price and they just happened to discover something that pleases them, they're much more likely to return to you in the future, and much more can be made off of a long term customer than a one-time upcharge that gives them no reason to return.

 

I'd pay at most 2x FV (or $40) for your container. You certainly have a nice bucket there

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I think I didn't do my intent justice in this post. I will personally search these coins. I guess I just wanted to put up a hypothetical "If you could buy this unsearched bucket of coins, what would you pay?" It was more of a curiosity thing. I don't think I'd ever get over 2-3 cents for them, searched or not. I might as well have fun. Besides, I hate selling coins.

 

Thank you for your thoughts. I look forward to filling it, and possibly filling a second one. I especially look forward to searching it and maybe finding a goodie

 

I believe that is a disease most of us have.

 

I think 4-5 cents a piece would be fair. For searched ones depending on the grade of the coins I would pay between 1 and 2 cents a piece. It is hard to say the odds of finding a key date or major error. I can also tell you it is unlikely to happen. Please let us know what you find.

 

There's a fellow from Rhode Island who lists in Numismatic News. I purchased a bag of 5,000 from him for $199.00 shipped. But there were an awful lot of uglies in this mix. I did find a whole lot of die cracks, chips, poorman doubling on many dates, a few nice clashes, a lot of early dates, no steelies. I guess it was a wash in the end and I got what I payed for. Nothing major.