I know it's not super exciting for most people to get 15 lbs of circulated coins to go through but I still have folders with empty spots in them and plan to key my eyes out for some things as I go through. My grandmother gave me these to go through, she uses quarters and the rest goes into jars. This is about 3 or 4 years worth. I sorted them by denomination last night and ended up with 4.325 lbs of nickels, 3.647 lbs of dimes, and 10.469 lbs of pennies. Plus a handful of other coins, Canadians I spotted during the quick sort, a few quarters, and a Susan B, plus I pulled any wheats I happened to spot during sorting. Now I need to get a list together of things to look for while I sort (aside from filling my folders). I'm still waiting for my 2018 redbook to arrive (the post office lost the first one). Anyway, just thought I'd share what'll be keeping me busy for a while. Also, anyone have any quick reference resources for key dates to keep an eye out for aside from silver obviously. Any reason to keep pre 1982 copper Lincoln memorials for the copper?
Be patient, wait for the Red Book to arrive and you will have everything you need in one book (for the most part).
No, at least unless you're willing to try to sell them to suckers. Please don't allow yourself to be influenced by coinflation-type sites that place a misleading "value" upon the copper contained in such cents. The problem is that the copper value quoted is for grade A and not in the form of an alloy, and means due to said form they're worth significantly less even if it was legal to melt them. Now, the exact value or percentage of grade A is somewhat open to debate. Some folks here will quote prices significantly higher than others, and means of this is of interest you'd be wise to contact the folks nearest to you who would be the buyers of such material, again if this was legal. As for the red book, and with the understanding that this is heresy to some folks here, if you only wish to know the keys and/or dates/mints with greater value potential, simply use any online price "guide" to identify which may fall under said categories. Considering the fact you're only date searching at this point, as long as you've a basic understanding of grades/conditions, doing so should help make separating the wheat from the chaff rather quick and painless.
Don't waste your time saving pre-82 copper cents other than Wheaties. They're only worth about 25% of the going rate for Grade A copper because they are an alloy, not pure copper. Chris
Thanks for the explanation. Makes total sense to me. Ya that makes sense, I only even mentioned it because i thought I read somewhere that people were saving them based on copper content It's never a bad thing to save money of any kind.
That is probably what I Got stashed away for a rainy day, Or maybe when I get new glasses, All Unsearched . Ha Ha
You're right on all levels; it's always best to ask if unsure. Unfortunately, there's a lot of questionable to bad info out there and is why a few of us press folks to look into this for themselves as opposed to taking anyone's word as gospel.
Well I finally got through all the pennies, I've just been sorting them off and on at night as time allows. Anyway, didn't find anything spectacular but did find a handful of wheat cents and some coins to fill some holes in my folders.
Well i got through the nickels much faster than the pennies. Had a handful of pre 1963 nickels that I'll hang on to, a couple in pretty good shape. Also found 1 war nickel - a 1942-P, not shown in the picture. It's in decent shape but a bit dirty. Thinking about letting it soak in some distilled water just to get some of the dirt off.
