It depends on just how worn they are. New, they average 3.11 grams. 453.54 / 3.11 = 146. However, not too many wheats sold by the pound are new. Adding 2% for wear gives you 149. Then if you stick a couple steel cents in there (2.70 grams new), you can probably get to 150.
Not even close unless you are getting something special. Dealers are paying 3¢ each for them and you can buy common dates for 5¢ each. Some unc rolls may not even go for that much.
yup, about 3 rolls in a pound. Which may only be about $5.50 however, older wheaties (Pre 1930) may sell for more (i.e. 7-10¢ each)
That is why I said "unless you are getting something special". But even at 10¢ each, you are only up to $11.00. You have got to get to 20¢ each to get in his range.
heres the link to the seller http://cgi.ebay.com/MASSIVE-COLLECT...mQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item1e57210fa4
He's gotten a fair amount of neutral and negative feedback on the coins--people are saying they are mostly 40's and a lot of 50's, and not really finding anything special at all.
oh yeah, I wasn't critiquing that or anything, just mentioning to the OP that the cents have to be older and you're right, even then it's not worth that much. edit: assuming that ebay seller does have that many wheat cents, they would be wise to lower their prices to move their product faster and gain more sales... but oh well.
Those kind of comments come from people who don't think abut what they are being offered. They think "Unsearched! maybe there will be a lot of early dates an maybe a few goodies." Then they are unhappy when almost everything they get is in the 40's and 50's. If you just think about it a bit, 90% or more of ALL the wheat cents were struck in the 40's and 50's. A truly unsearched random sample of wheat cents SHOULD BE 90% or more from the 40's and 50's.
That's a good point, and I wish people would consider it more. In fact, just last night, someone gave me 200 wheaties that his relative had been collecting for a number of years. I sorted through all of them -- guess what: the biggest pile was 50's, 2d biggest pile was 40's, 3rd biggest pile was 30's, and just a handful of 20's, and even less 1910's. And this was the opposite of unsearched! These were ones he pulled out to save! (And not a single coin that was notable. None.) So, Conder, you are 100% correct.
My favorite part of his auction description is the opening line "As you can see from our other auctions, we sell rare, certified gold coins and Morgan Silver Dollars." So I take a look at his other auctions...all junk, all "unsearched" and "investment" lots. :mouth:
Also since a lot of the "wheatie hoards" that have been created were begun AFTER the wheats stopped in 1958, you would also expest those hoards to be even more heavily biased towards the more recent 40's and 50's. If you were to start hoarding Lincoln Memorials as they came through your hands now that they have been discontinued, do you think you would find one 1959 (mintage 1.8 bilion) for every seven 1999 cents (mintage 11.5 billion)? Of course not. Your hoard will be heavily weighted towards the 1990's and 2000's coins.