Hi All, I have been reading posts here on Coin Talk and another forum I stumbled across today. When I read the posts in the Coin Roll Hunting and General Coin Conversation I find the following conclusions: 1) Some Hobbyists are keeping the lincoln cents for the copper content pre 1982's. 2) Some Hobbyists are keeping the lincoln cents they find in the dates ranges from 1960 thur 1979 that are in BU condition and not for their copper content. What dates should I keep that I find coin roll hunting or in my pocket change and what condition should I be looking for? I have read where people are jumping for joy finding a 1970's penny that looks brand new. Please help. Thank you. John
Hunt for and keep what you want. You probably won't be jumping for joy if you find something that someone else told you to look for. (Unless it's worth a fortune to someone else)
Hi John, My thought is to keep only what you have room for and enjoy searching for. I keep all the lincoln cents I find from 1982 (only the 1982's minted prior to the transition) and earlier. I hand search so I only have a few hundred dollars worth but they do command a very small premium on certain websites. Ofccarse, there are still so many available for face that nobody is going to get rich off of them. I don't find very many in BU condition so that is not an issue for me. Also, I don't have a nack for finding errors, but some people do find them. I do run across a fair number of Canadians, which I keep. I am from central New York so I assume you will come across a bunch of Canadians in western New York.
Personally, I keep all pre-82 copper pennies. I have a jar designated only for them. I also keep Canadians, but just for the heck of it. They're not really worth too much.
Thank you all thus far for your comments. I truly love the one cent coins that are out there. The IHC being my favorite. I have been finding in my CRH of Pennies, alot of 1960's and 1970's. Like alot of us here time can be pressing so I figured I would just keep clean (non corroded & clean surface) ones of this date era, but I wanted certain dates as well to just look for as for value. Like low mintage dates etc etc. If there is any particular dates in the 60's, and 70's date range I wanted to know. Thanks again CTer's
First part: Me too! The indian head cent is by far my favorite coin. Second part: As far as I know, there weren't any low mintages in the 60's and 70's. Just look for the 1972 double die. That's really the only one worth big money.
Not really on or off topic, but does anyone else think that the fragility of the Zincolns (the fact that they disentigrate so quickly and easily) is going to make them scarcer in the future (by date) than the good old coppers? Or, to put it another way, does it seem their survival rate in the wild is kind of low?
SO MANY were minted, so even if a couple million break down and disentigrate, there's still BILLIONS more. So, bottom line, no. I do not think they will be rare any time in the near future.
True, but there were MILLIONS of wheaties made, less than 100 million/year. Now, there are BILLIONS of zinc pennies still being produced, more than 5 billion/year on average.
