Hand Rolled Vs. Machine Rolled Cents

SaorAlba

I have been copper mining again, looking for pre-1982 bronze cents and anything else that needs to be retired. I usually go through 2-3 boxes of cents a week, a box contains 2500 cents.

Anyway I usually get machine rolled cents from a couple of my banks, I went to a third on Monday and got nothing but hand rolled cents in boxes. I was a bit iffy on taking them, figuring sure they had been checked for the good stuff.

To my obvious surprise, uh uh, they hadn't. I had higher percentages of bronze in those rolls, 40% vs. 27% in machine rolls, but the best thing was I got 52 wheats from 1918-1958 in three boxes, 7 George VI cents from Canada, 37 early QEII cents, ie before 1964, a Panama Centesimo, and 21 S mints. Oh, and a dime for good measure. Usually when I get handrolled cents in boxes, I end up with at least one dime.

RWB

Just a guess, but I’d think the human-rolled coins would offer more interesting possibilities than ones sorted and rolled by automated equipment. Depositors with jars of cents just want to convert them to paper, and don’t pick out the foreign, or early dates or the stray silver piece.

What has been your experience between automated wrapping and human?