Hi everyone and thanks in advance for any help. I just got the job of going through my inlaws pennies that they have saved over the years. Right now, we have about 300 wheat pennies, few dollar coins, etc. They are mostly pennies...about 40,000 to go through...no kidding and we really have no idea what we have or what we are looking for. Any ideas on what pennies we should be looking for would be helpful. Anyway, my first question and the reason I posted, is an oddball that I'm really confused on. At first glance I thought it was a fake. He used to travel overseas alot in the 70's. Looks identical to this: http://www.ancientpeddler.com/roman imp/julio_claud/tiberius/tiberius.htm but in much better condition. How do I tell if it is real? What is it's value if it is real? I will try to post some actual pictures tomorrow.
About the pennies, a few ways to deal with them, $400 dollars face. enough to buy a microscope and have some fun. The memorial reverse is now a closed series, divided into 2 sets, copper pre 82, zinc post 82, with 7 varieties in the transition year of 82. copper is also possible and known in 83 & 84 if a left over planchet ended up in the hopper. you can tell with a small electronic gram scale. There are several cherry picker varieties, several years with doubles or variable lettering etc. Some years have brass cents, again color sells. But before you can sort for this stuff it helps if it is in ziplocks by date and mint. If you find a dozen really nice ones, that will pay for the toys. The next few dozens will be the gravy. The leftovers are still worth a cent each! Remember, this is supposed to be fun. If it gets to be something else, quit. bank them. Options; - get a red book, and a few other references, and a small gram scale, sort by date and mint, toss out the bad looking junk for the coinstar machine. ebay or otherwise sell the good dates. - Sell them as an unsorted lot, let someone else sort them. - take them all to the bank. - Pull the shiny stuff by date and mint and bank the rest. --------------- - A few points, the small ziplock poly bags from hobby lobby or walmart from the hobby section really help to keep things sorted. You will need about a thousand. A sharpie marker will write on them and the 2x3 inch bag holds about a half roll. a 4x6 is a large as I go. You will end up with multiples of each year. That is the way it works. - Buy a lot of cardboard flips up front. You should find lots of neat shiny stuff. The notes on the flip help keep track. - forget the loupe, a 2 or 3 inch hand lens will work for most of it. An illuminated magnifier like at the dealer works ok as well. - stereo microscopes are available on ebay quite reasonably priced, 10x to 30x power is good, no more than 50x. about $250. They show a LOT more than a loupe, sometimes you can find one with a camera port for photography. - Rolls are overrated until the final sort. Most Banks here open all the customer supplied rolls, dump them in the counting machine and reroll them. - even new bank rolled new state quarters or pres dollars. If that is the fate, a box or bag works well. - If you put the good ones up in flips, or roll by date and mint, and bright or dark, it makes it easier to sell to coin people. - Dark, worn, cents are good for the bank. Unless it is a known rare coin there is little or no premium. (except pre 82 for copper) -DO NOT bag up any corroded junk cents with good ones, the black and green crap spreads. coinstar is made for corroded crap. - Wash often and - DON"T EAT WHEN SORTING, especially not sticky or salty or oily junk foods or crackers. pennies are bad for the teeth. ( sometimes I get mixed up, hard to roll an oreo) - There is beginning to be a speculation market for '82 or older cents based on the copper content (condition does not matter). A little checking around may turn up more info. - it is illegal to melt cents in the US, copper price speculation is that, speculation. - The market exploded this summer for nice shiny cents from 58 to 98, demand outstripped supply for some years. Wear gloves, handle only from the edges, and you may pull enough nice shiny stuff ms 60-65 to be worth the work. Have fun!!!!
Better pics would make me more certain, but I am fairly sure its a fake. And good job on the attribution, its a Tiberius denarius, the "Tribute penny" of the Bible.
Thanks for the replies. I am fairly sure it is a fake also. It seems to be in too good of condition. Sadly, we don't have the time to inventory every penny here. I know it's going to kill some people here, but we have only sorted out the wheats. There are alot of pennies that look brand new from the 70's and 80's so far. We have turned in over 10,000. Maybe I will start at least keeping the new looking ones, pre 82? We found a 1888 indian head penny...pretty sure this one is real! Also found an early una pesata, 1907 us quarter, and a few others!!
