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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;MisterWD, post: 2971511, member: 76991&quot;]In 1979 I heard that they were going to start making cents out of zinc starting in &#039;81. At the time I had a five gallon jar that I had been putting cents from my pocket change into since 1964. It was about five inches deep in bronze cents so I decided to fill it up before they started making zinc cents. I bought $10.00 worth of rolled cents every payday until I filled it. I did not check the dates before putting them in, I only pulled out the steel cents. Along the way, my dad liked the idea and pulled out a pint jar full of Indian head cents he&#039;d been saving all his life from pocket change, put them in the jar unchecked. My older brother did the same and threw in about 1000 wheaties he had saved along the way. Neither had checked the dates. They weren&#039;t collectors, just pulled old coins out of circulation. The only non-bronze coin in the jar was an 1863 Indian head cent in AU condition that I found in a roll. I had filled it before 1981 and built a very nice wooden frame around it to protect it and display it. In 1983 I went to Alaska hoping to get work on the pipeline. Didn&#039;t happen but I so enjoyed myself up there that I stayed for ten years one winter. I had left the jar in my sister&#039;s care, making it clear that it was for my retirement and the only way she could dispose of it was to return it to me or give it to our brother. She agreed. When I came back from Alaska I retrieved my penny jar and displayed it until I retired in 2010. Then I started sorting through the jar. I started finding zinc cents right away... lots of them. I ended up with zero Indian Heads, zero Wheaties and over 5000 zinc cents. My sister, not a collector herself had allowed her housekeeper&#039;s son sort through them and strip out all the Wheaties and Indians so long as he replaced what he took and left the jar full like it was. &quot;What? They were just pennies!&quot; she said.&nbsp; grrrrrr...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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