Hi Folks, I have a lot of these stamped pennies. They have various things stamped on them, like the US Flag, Liberty Bell, Holiday themes, sports theme among others. I put them on Ebay (for next to nothing) and they opened up right away, much to my surprise. Can anyone tell me anything about them? I would be curious to know who makes them and if "real dealers" sell this type of items of just souvenir places. Do people collect these? Here is a pic.. Here is a close up of one. Thanks for any info Best Regards, - Hal
Well, I put put up the set of 16 pennies for 99 cents, and about 200 for 2.50, so maybe I am the sucker!! Maybe they will go higher... I actually got then for under face value at an auction. - Hal
I see you have some of the "bicentennial pennies" and the "Lincoln-Kennedy" pennies. These were common in the 1970s and usually were attached to cards with a story (i.e. the amazing Lincoln - Kennedy coincidences), and sold for 50 cents to $1. Because you got them for under face, the seller probably had a hoard of unsold coins. These are novelty items with no numismatic value. But you still might get 50 cents to $1 each for them on Ebay as novelty items.
Thanks for all the info. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get that much on ebay, but I will most likely bulk them out. I got them under face because at the auction their was 0 interest in them and no one even bothered to count them. But, I can never turn down buying money at less than face. It is funny. Some are bulked out in bags, but many are lovingly place in 2x2's and have written descriptions on them and other info. I am thinking that maybe this was a dealers or a store's inventory, but I really have no idea. - Hal
Thanks for the reply. What is the proper way to describe these pennies? Is "stamped" penny correct? In my ebay auction, I describe then as "stamped Novelty Pennies" or something like that. Thanks again, - Hal
Well first, don't call them pennies. If I were going to offer them, I would list them something like this. Counterstamped Lincoln Cents. Designs include Kennedy head, US Flag, Various state outlines, ect.... Be sure to include a few upclose photos. If it were me, I would sell them by the piece, in a 2x2 for a quarter each. If you want to roll them, and offer in that manner, go $3.00 per roll. While they aren't exactly a rare item, they really aren't encountered that much. Especially in quantity.
Thanks again. On a different topic, what is the deal with using the word penny? Is that the badge of a newbie? I have seen these comments on the forum a few times, and I guess I have never understood it. I know I got to get down with the lingo. Best Regards, - Hal
Look at the reverse (back) of one of those copper colored thingies with Abe Lincoln's face on the obverse (front). It clearly says "ONE CENT" below the Memorial (or between the wheat ears). In fact, if you look back through the Red Book, you will see that legend on each predecessor to the Lincoln cents. Nowhere in the Red Book will you find a picture of a "penny". Now look at the minor coinage of Great Britain, and it's community of colonies, dominions, and affiliated nations. There you will see legends like "penny", "half penny", "three pence", etc.
Thanks satootoko. From now on I will only use the word penny when I buy nails. Actually, I always thought that a penny was a coin that was worth 1/100 of the standard unit in any currency in much the same way that nickel refers to a 5 cent coin and dime refers to a 10 cent coin. So, from now on, cent it is!!! Regards, - Hal
I take this slur personally, since I bought a few hundred of this guy's cents! I used to generally look down on these novelties, but I have really gotten interested in counterstamped coins, especially modern ones. So, with that in mind, I figured I could not ignore these novelty Lincolns. They are cheap enough, so that I like, and I don't mind collecting something most others ignore. In this case, one of the lots I bought was for 200+ of the same design. I will keep a mess of them, I will spend a few, and I will add another counterstamp to many and spend most of those. And.....remember this: years ago, most all counterstamps were considered low brow (at least merchant ones, for example), but many sell for 100s of dollars now. Who wants to wager which Lincoln novelty cent will break the $10 barrier (not counting overpriced eBay ones being sold to the uninformned)? Someday there will be a book about these, and the collecting will really begin.
The relationships between "pennies" and "nails" is itself interesting -- and the subject of a different post down the road. A "penny" was 1/240 of a pound: 20 shillings to the pound; 12 pence to the shilling. This was based on an accounting system from Italian bankers of the late middle ages and it meant 1 Pound of Silver with the shilling being an Ounce and the Penny being the last shadow of the old Roman denarius. (d is the symbol for penny: Lsd or L/d with the / being a quick, thin s and the curly L being "libra" or weight.) These were all silver coins. In the early Federal period, when the US had a large copper Cent (called ONE CENT right on the coin), the old Large Cent (1793-1857) were more or less the same size as the British (copper) Penny from about 1820 forward. (Britain tried huge "Cartwheel" coppers to replace silver, but went to a reduced and more convenient coin.) So, the US Cent was called a Penny by popular notion. Similarly, we call the Quarter "two bits" because of its near relationship the Spanish 2 Reales coins. (Spanish and Mexican coinage was the dominant currency in North America until after the American Civil War. Banknotes from Ohio and Tennessee and a dozen other places showed Spanish and Mexican coins on them. See Spanish Coins on American Notes at http://scoan.oldnote.org/) The "nickel" is our modern name for the 5-cent coin that is really 75% copper and 25% nickel. In 1858, the name "nickel" applied to the first of the small cents -- only 12% nickel, but it gave them a "white" color. The moden nickel says "Five Cents" on it. However, the Dime does say "Dime." And that is the cause of some humor among Europeans. What, after all, is a "dime"? The Canadian coins say "10 Cents" and "25 Cents" and "50 Cents." American coins say "half dollar" and "quarter dollar" (which at least says something about their value) and "dime" (which does not). If all of the above is not more an anyone wanted to know, please, ask me for more! Michael
Tsk, tsk... Many perhaps "mainstream" collectors of US Coins could suffer the same sleight when you consider the objective fact that up to two millions of unnecessary Morgan Dollars were struck each month and fully one-third of them remained Uncirculated for lack of use. Thus, the coin that is perhaps Everyone's Favorite Eye-Knocker is an overpriced bauble with no numismatic value. The $20 Saint Gaudens is also flawed, a knock-off design by a politically-connected classicist who cribbed his inspiration from a newly-excavated Greek statue. The Fantastic 1804 Dollar is the title of a book by Ken Bressett and Eric P. Newman, presidents of the ANA and ANS respectively. But for them and the auction catalogs upon which their Major Tout rests, the 1804 Dollars would be mere novodels. As it is only five of them are that real. The others are fakes -- and everyone knows it. The point of the above is NOT to denigrate other collectors but to show only that _ANY_ collectible (and collector) can be subjected to highbrow abuse. Therefore, it takes some practice to see the worthless junk that other fools pursue as a new opportunity to be pursued yourself. I am sure that you appreciate the hard work that Q. DAVID BOWERS has done for the hobby. Perhaps you know of his book, THE WATERFORD WATER CURE which was inspired by a counterstamped coin. Michael
Well its a good thing you called them stamped pennies, I was just searching the internet for info on them and found this neat forum. Just found a roll of 1964 with lincoln smokin a pipe on all of them in a lot of Bu rolls I bought, wasnt happy to see they not worth much but always happy to find a good coin forum.
Worth and value are often very different things. Just because a item doesn't have much of a value, doesn't make it worthless. All numismatic items can be used for educational purposes and inspiration. Beauty and worth is always in the eye of the beholder.
