The topic has been discussed here on coin talk before but I just wanted to give an update with my own experience. I recently purchased 2 boxes of lincoln cents from my bank. They were N.F. String & Son's wrapped rolls. In the past I believe there were people on this forum asking if this company was culling certain things like silver and copper. In the two boxes that I searched, I only found 1 copper cent which was a 1926 D cent. Nothing else in 2 boxes. I know you can run short on coppers in certain boxes but I do believe that they are pulling copper from their boxes that they send out. (They can do what they want, only letting everyone know what I've found.) The box was dated 12/17/18 (not sure if they did that or the bank) and I found 2018's that were obviously circulated...... Happy hunting to all my CT friends!
Ehhhh, not so much. I look for things all kinds of things. The lack of copper was what was concerning since I've seen/heard of the ebay listings where people are selling tractor trailer loads of copper coins. I actually found a semi decent 1998 wide am out of the first box so it was ok in my book!
Um... the banks have a machine called a "Copperator" which uses a "coppermagnet" to pull the copper coins out of the sorting machine. Because of this copper cents are very rare and worth 100s of times over face value. On eBay sellers are selling dump truck loads of copper coins and using the profit to buy million dollar mansions in California. Or... the real answer is that coin searchers are hoarding copper cents which will end up causing even larger mintages of current zinc cents to make up for the shortage of cents in circulation. Here's a dose of reality for copper cent hoarders - children are getting copper cents in change and throwing them on the ground like they were cigarette butts. Do you hoard cigarette butts too???
The real answer is that since the introduction of zinc cents, the billions and billions of zinc cents minted already dwarf all the other copper cents ever created. Besides the number of old copper cents that have been collected, or destroyed by attrition. When you get a box of cents over 2000 are going to be zinc. Some copper, and a few wheats. And it's pointless to hoard copper cents for their metal content anyway.
I missed that Copperator machine..... I guess it's why I don't have a mansion! No, I don't hoard Cigarette butts either. Not sure what that has to do with my original post . Someone posted a link to an ebay add that you could almost pinpoint to N.F. String & Son with a literal truck load of copper cents. I'm just following up with what i have found from 2 boxes of N.F. String & son. I really don't believe that it's your general collector and coin roll hunter that is hoarding the copper cents that causes people to find less. I think it comes from the people who have the machine to separate the copper from the zinc cents at an alarming rate.
Funny true stories. I dumped $140 of only 1964 dated nickels. Several times I dumped $140 of only current obverse nickels, minus the 2009s. Several times I dumped $140 of all nickels dated before 2004. Several times I dumped $140 of all nickels dated from 1960 to 1979. How would you explain those boxes if you got them?
I'm really not trying to be difficult but a box of nickels is $100. Did you find all '64's or the later you were listing in each box? It's possible, very much so. I don't know exactly how the process works in each corner of the US but I guess it's possible if someone dumped a hoard of '64's all at one shot. I have had the same results over a year with boxes from this company. Not a coincidence (and it's ok, really).
