I've been saving 2017-P Lincoln cents...but is this worth it? Does anyone know the total mintage yet? I've been saving them as I come across them, but should I be cashing them in to buy more rolls?
Only extremely high grades will go up In my opinion. In 5 years I think we'll still be finding unc's in change. Too many people hoarded them. Only cent to have a "P" mintmark and way to much hype.
Ok, somewhat like the 1883 no cents nickel that people went crazy over? Or the 1909-VDB? Now we have all of these nice coins because people hoarded them and you can easily get a nice one for a low price.
Supply and demand. Grade and condition. A coin can be worth more in a circulated grade if it was hordes in MS grades. First year issues tend to be hoarded. If storage isn't an issue, keep them and watch the prices over the years. I have a full box of them. Never opened the sealed bank box. I have lots of never opened rolls too. For me it's not that costly and storage in nothing.
One catch is that zinc-coated-copper Lincoln cents rot unless you store them super-carefully. I expect that there'll come a day, probably sooner than most people think, when unspotted examples are actually quite hard to find. I've given some passing thought to buying a box or two, carefully rinsing them with acetone, and sealing them into a container that I can flush with dry nitrogen and weld shut.
I honestly don't know, but I have that impression. It just seems like the ones I get in change "go trashy" a lot faster than the old copper ones did. Chemically, an undamaged zinc cent shouldn't age differently from a solid-bronze one -- the problems only arise if the zinc core is exposed through a scratch, gouge, or hole in the plating. My guess is that most of those cents have at least one spot in the plating that exposes the core to air and moisture, and that's what lets the decay sets in.
Of course it will always be worth something. It will always be worth at least one cent. The real question is whether once cent ever actually buy anything.
I've personally had 10-15 boxes of solid 17Ps. I picked the nicest one for my album and tossed the rest back.
I kept aside a roll's worth of the nicest ones I've come across. It's only costing me 50 cents to hang on to them so why not.