On a program on TV this morning, December 13, 2007, they showed millions of cents just lying on the ground. This was Channel 5 here in the Midwest at about 8:50AM. The scene was in Rockefeller Plaza, New York. This was some kind of charity drive and was intended for pennies (cents) only. They called them PENNIES of course. The exact amount was not known yet but it was estimated to be well over $1,000,000. People were shown dumping them out of bags and the people on the show were walking all over them. They would probably just be shoveled up, put in wheel barrels and taken somewhere to be counted by machines, of course. Now just think about how many are Wheat Cents, how many may be an 09S, 09S VDB, 14D, 22 Plain, 31S, etc. Being banged together, walked on, shoveled, bagged and then put into a coin counting machine.
Check this out Just Carl http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=31278 Heres another http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=31265
Must have missed that before. Kind of glad I did. I'm still realling from the thought of millions and millions of cents being dumped all over the place.
actually the mint does a pretty good job of beating up the coins also. check out the history channel when they run the show on 'money' steve