If I could find 3 or 4 issues one coin such as bubbles, blistering, die deterioration would that have a premium? I think it would be a keeper to find a train wreck of a penny with multiple process errors
You would think so, yes, but unfortunately bubbles and blistering are the norm for Lincoln cents made after 1982 when they started using copper plated zinc...
Are wrecked trains worth more than working trains? Btw, that is a corrosion dome at the base of the 8.
They shouldn't but sadly there are thieves who post such coins with those issues on ebay and Etsy claiming they are "Rare" mint error for ridiculous amounts of money. So newbies trying to learn true mint errors and values are just completely confused and misled.
Buyer beware, or so the saying goes. Interesting to have multiple things going on, probably. Value...not so much. Spend the Zincolns before they disintegrate.
I agree with the title and, I think, the theme of the post - they don't make coins like they used to.
Yeah, but is it really the mint's fault? Who the heck can use government union workers and manufacture something for less than a cent nowadays, but still look like a cent? They are being asked the impossible. Maybe they could make red fiber cents or something near that price. One cent and 5 cent pieces simply are not needed anymore, and should be discontinued. Free up room in change drawers for $1 and $2 coins. I truly believe a big push to digital cash has been our lack of better coins. Who wants to carry around $2 worth of quarters to buy a pop in a vending machine? It is simply ridiculous.
You would think so wouldn't you? But alas they do not. It's just part of the process due to these cheap Zinc Cents.
Fantasy Alert! The U.S. Mint announces beginning in 2021 that all Lincoln cents will no longer be minted for circulation, but still minted for collectors only. Composition will revert back to 1981 when they were 95% copper. Premium prices will result in profit, not deficit for minting of pennies! Ah, it's good to dream!
The Zincoln farce could be part of a long-term strategy to phase out the cent (if we believed the Mint dealt in long-term strategies). Most cents in "circulation" at this point are Zincolns. If the Mint stops issuing them for circulation, the ones currently circulating will continue to rot away, everyone will eventually get sick of getting corroded and corrosive change, and the general public will be HAPPY to see them go. (I put "circulation" in quotes, because I'll bet 80% or more or cents today are at some stage of a one-way trip from the Mint, to the banks, to the stores, to a change jar or parking lot, to the trash...)
Makes sense to me, other than presuming anyone could or would come up with a 40 year strategy. You’d also have to assume the zinc lobby would “let” the Mint stop production.
The fantasy scenario is really not so far fetched. Eliminate the cent in it's current composition and make it of plastic. Lighter, cheaper, easier to transport because of weight, etc. If my former company could make a finished syringe in the 1cc-3cc size and sterilized for less than a nickel each why could the mint not make a 1 cent coin dirt cheap? And continue to make a one cent coin for collectors out of bronze. Let's face it, their are no more machines that take one cent coins outside of elongated coin stamping machines, and the vending machine operators should have no problem with this. I'm pretty confident banks and Brinks would love not to have to lift and transport all that weight. If made of polyethylene they would likely enjoy a longer life than Zincolns. Coinstar would reject them but that would be a nominal headache. Just thinking outside the box. Let the naysayers give this a shout out.