Collecting nice Memorial cents

What do you do with the leftover coins after searching the bu rolls?

 

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I went the mint set route, but only for 1968 and up. Most that I have are pretty nice, though there are some exceptions that could use upgrades (1968, 1971, 1975 and 1978 come to mind, though the 1978 might pass as nicely toned!). Many of the late 90's and 2000's are barely distinguishable from proofs. The mint sets from 59 - 64 never look very nice to me, so those require individual purchase if you can find them. 65 - 67 were the SMS years - finding actual business strike mint state coins is VERY tricky.

 

Sold a lot and used them to further my BU roll set collection. Still have a lot laying around though. Just not much time in my life the past 3 years....hoping to get to them eventually.

 

This has been one of my projects - complete Memorial BU roll set in MS-65 up - here's an example.

The rolls with dots on them I've abandoned hope of finding better coins....but when I find a super nice one I'll check versus the top coin (I put the worst coins on top). The rolls that say GEM are at least MS-67. That 86D roll I'm really proud of - the coins are amazing in that tube.

 

Here's the 86D that resides in my main collection:

 

Here's an awesome toner I found in an OBW (end coin):

 

Here's a tough one to find in an early die state:

 

1978 is a tough year, most coins are mid to late die state and the working dies were mush. It's a coin I've struggled with for sure, I didn't even put mine into an airtite to remind me that I need a better example!

 

When you buy new rolls to search are you looking for anything in particular or anything to avoid? Unopened bank rolls, coins in tubes etc. ?

 

One thing I noticed was the master hub must have been reworked sometime during the late 90's. There was suddenly a pronounced vein visible in Lincoln's head that gradually faded during the ensuing decade. It is mostly gone again now.

 

I’ve seen rolls of the 1986p&d going for 20-30 bucks a roll, is this really that hard to find?

 

Ultra high grade coins is what I'm looking for - and a little bit looking for varieties.

I have searched EVERYTHING, bank rolls, OBW rolls, tubed rolls and loose coins I find at dealers/shows, bank 5000ct bags, friends old stashes....you name it.

 

These wholesale at this level.

They are not common and when you finally find a roll they are often rusted. When a roll turns bad there sometimes will be no nice ones left in it.

 

Yes, in mint state red that is. Plenty in circulated condition - those are throw aways IMO unless they have a really nice toning. The 86D rolls have always commanded a premium due to their scarcity. They made about a billion less of each issue if you compare the surrounding years. Also, nobody cared about them and dismissed them as junk (they made billions argument) - so few rolls were saved.

I'll say it for a millionth time - yes the mints made billions of memorial cents. However, the ones that are high grade, well struck and not filled with bubbles are probably less than 1% of the population in my experience. I've searched well over 100k coins in my life and this is my observation.

Finding high grade coins is also befuddled by dealers - 99+% of dealers HATE them so they typically only have minor inventories and that is mostly the well known varieties or errors. Dealers generally are also under the impression that you can find MS-68 coins in every mint set.....pure BS. In fact, in my experience, most mint set Lincolns are garbage.

Putting together a high quality set is MUCH more difficult than doing the same for wheats!

 

Should add.... @cladking and I have been saying this stuff for years. If you search, you will likely find our old threads which may be of interest to you. Clad knows FAR more than I - make him your friend if you're into moderns!

 

Just started to CRH Lincoln Cents. I’ve found some nice wheaties and even found a Canadian Bicentennial Dove penny. Now I am just not sure what to keep. I’ve read an article saying all circulated cents are to be considered “Brown” when grading but I’ve found some nice examples of circulated cents that look Red or Red-Brown. Probably will take a few to my local coin club and get their opinion as well. Thanks!

 

Whomever wrote that article is dead wrong. I've found, and mostly discarded, thousands of fully red AU (and mint state) memorial cents. The only thing that affects grading is the fact they will not receive a color designation in AU and below. But that certainly does not make them brown.

 

I found this in my change the other day. So it's still possible to find nice ones' in change.

 

From what little experience I have I’d say that’s pretty lucky! I’ve dumped at least 20 rolls of 1960 cents into the coin star machine after searching through, none as nice as that one.

 

Little bit of an update: I finished searching through the 300 or so rolls and tubes I had purchased a few years ago as a bulk lot. This was mixed dates from 1959-2009, mixed of obw rolls and tubes. Very heavy on the early 60’s, probably 30 rolls of just 1963 d.

An observation: almost all of the coins in paper rolls had ugly toning and carbon spots. The rolls in tubes were in much better shape. I’m not inspired to buy any OBW rolls to search through in the future. Maybe I had bad luck?

@BadThad, I followed your technique and started keeping a tube for each date/mm for the best examples. Neat idea!