Hey guys, I got to thinking today and I was wandering since wheats are so much collected today, and they don't make them anymore, will the Lincoln memorial penny become really collected in a few years?
Wandering? We all be wanderers......as for collectables? Memorials will be collectable in a few years. Know what? They're collectable now......
I've started saving pre-1982 memorials. Primarily because I like the composition better than the coated zinc post 1982.
I save all the pre 1982 simply because the copper melt value is more than double the face. Anything a person can acquire that immediately doubles in value is worth saving in my opinion. Some Memorial varieties are scarce and desirable as I am now learning.
They'll probably follow the same route others series have and start to disappear from circulation over the next several decades. However, it's going to take awhile, as there were a ton of them made.
50 years hence, there will be mountains of rolls of memorial cents. All dates and mints. They will never be rare coins, at least not in our lifetime. They will always be common. Consider this : There are no rare wheat cents. Some are valuable, because the demand is so high. And many are "condition rarities" in really high grades. But all date/mints wheat cents are common. All are r.1 . Most still exist in rolls of bright BU coins. If wheat cents are common 100 years after their first minting, memorial cents will be common for a long, long time.
just very rough estimates, not including the 82 cents, there were about 455,734 tons of copper Lincoln Memorial cents made, this is rounding things lower, so it is a low number. That is figuring 147 cents per pound. Or about 294 thousand cents per ton, there is about 3400 tons for every billion copper cents made
Copper cents are the 'bullion' coin of the future. They will follow the path of common pre 1965 silver coins or better yet, the 65-67 halves. Out of general circulation, but always with a ready supply near melt in circulated condition and always popping up in circulation occasionally for those searching for them. In fact, Wheats=90% Silver and Copper Memorials=40% Silver is a likely pattern if we ignore a lack of differences in melt value. VERY long term (long after I'm gone). Copper will corrode over time more than silver or gold so the high end AND well preserved specimens will have a significant premium for your GGGGGgrandchildren..
To answer your question - the Lincoln cent, wheat & memorial combined, is already the single most collected coin there is. So how do improve on that ?
Personally I save most problem free pre82s and higher grade post 82s. I really don't think they will go up much in price but I keep then anyway.
All my pre-82's and the copper 82's go into a melt bucket. Figure the ban will be lifted in a couple years.
If you can manage to keep them from deteriorating it may be a good idea to save high quality examples of the POST-82 memorials. They tend to spot or corrode so readily, and so may suffer from plating bubbles that high quality pieces may be hard to come by in the future.
