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My Midwest Coin Adventure
GritsMan
Posts: 2,599 ✭✭✭
Last week I reported my first find of my first Wartime nickel while roll searching. Thought some of you might appreciate my last couple of days in a small Midwest town. I went there for work and, of course, decided to try my luck with $50 in halves and $20 in nickels. The halves yielded 3 1967s. "Not bad," I thought--better than most places, at least. Then I dug into the nickels. Right away, I noticed a good mix of older dates including...
1939
1946
1946-D
1948
1951-S
1953-D
1958-D
Then, a Fine 1942-S popped out. Was I surprised and delighted! After last week, thought I'd never find another Wartime nickel.
So, I realized I couldn't carry all this change back with me, so I stopped at a bank the next morning and asked if they'd mind taking the nickels. No problem. While I waited, though, I scanned the teller's coin tray--and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The bottom 5 dimes definitely looked silver, but even more surprising, the bottom 5 pennies looked steel! When she returned I somewhat sheepishly asked if I could buy them. No prob. The dimes were 1946, 1946-D, 1957, 1961, and a Canadian 1962, all in F shape or so. The real gems were the pennies. Of the 4, I got all 3 mintmarks. The worst was in VF condition, one in XF, one in AU, and the last (the -S) in BU.
But I have a question: How do you tell if a steel penny has been coated? What's the usual pattern of wear? I noticed that they get pretty grungy looking in a hurry, but this BU doesn't have a spot of wear on it and I think it has its original luster. What are the odds of it being the original finish? Sorry I can't post a pic.
Oh, and one last note. Filled by greed and coin-lust, I went back to the orignal place to get 10 more rolls of nickels. Brought them home and they were the most beat-up, common-date rolls I've ever seen. Yeah, I figured I had it coming, BUT I'm guessing the damage to these coins was caused by a counting machine. If that's true, and this problem is pervasive, the availability of nice circulated coinage is going to drop precipitously. I know that some of you have talked about this. Any more thoughts?
Hope you enjoyed the adventure...
Sneed
1939
1946
1946-D
1948
1951-S
1953-D
1958-D
Then, a Fine 1942-S popped out. Was I surprised and delighted! After last week, thought I'd never find another Wartime nickel.
So, I realized I couldn't carry all this change back with me, so I stopped at a bank the next morning and asked if they'd mind taking the nickels. No problem. While I waited, though, I scanned the teller's coin tray--and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The bottom 5 dimes definitely looked silver, but even more surprising, the bottom 5 pennies looked steel! When she returned I somewhat sheepishly asked if I could buy them. No prob. The dimes were 1946, 1946-D, 1957, 1961, and a Canadian 1962, all in F shape or so. The real gems were the pennies. Of the 4, I got all 3 mintmarks. The worst was in VF condition, one in XF, one in AU, and the last (the -S) in BU.
But I have a question: How do you tell if a steel penny has been coated? What's the usual pattern of wear? I noticed that they get pretty grungy looking in a hurry, but this BU doesn't have a spot of wear on it and I think it has its original luster. What are the odds of it being the original finish? Sorry I can't post a pic.
Oh, and one last note. Filled by greed and coin-lust, I went back to the orignal place to get 10 more rolls of nickels. Brought them home and they were the most beat-up, common-date rolls I've ever seen. Yeah, I figured I had it coming, BUT I'm guessing the damage to these coins was caused by a counting machine. If that's true, and this problem is pervasive, the availability of nice circulated coinage is going to drop precipitously. I know that some of you have talked about this. Any more thoughts?
Hope you enjoyed the adventure...
Sneed
Winner of the Coveted Devil Award June 8th, 2010
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