It Could Have Been A Disappointing Cent Box Search Until...
SaorAlba
Posts: 7,593 ✭✭✭✭✭
I search cent boxes(2500 rolled cents each) about once or twice a week on average. In the past I have been averaging approximately 10 wheats per box, usually 1940’s and 1950’s. My last three boxes have been somewhat disappointing – the amount of pre-1982 bronze coins seems to be going down to about a quarter of the box and my averages for numbers of wheats have gone down too. After searching two boxes on Tuesday of this week, I was on the verge of giving up. I cashed in the zincolns at one of my banks that has a free coin counter and got my cash. Yesterday I had to go to one of the grocery stores to buy milk, it has one of the in-store banks and on a lark I asked if they had a cent box I could buy. The teller, who was new apparently and didn’t know me – said no, we don’t have any. Just then a teller behind her that knows me well, said yes, he can buy one box. At this point I wondered why I bothered, not having much success with the previous two boxes, but I figured different bank maybe different results.
Well the pre-1982 bronze was consistent with my recent results, rather disappointing. Wheats were a disappointment too:
1944
1946
1950 – harshly cleaned
1951-D
That was it, four stinkin Lincolns.
San Francisco mints were a bit better than average, considering that I am deep in the Midwest and they are all nearing 40 years old now:
1968
1969 x 3
1970 x 2
1972 x 2
1974
I also had fewer Canadian earlies too
GVI
1943
QEII YH
1961
1964 x 4
But my best find, the one that made it all worth it was this one, about midway through the box when I let out a scream my kids outside heard and came in wondering what happened…
Never seen one of those in the wild, usually they are zoo'd by now.
My earliest find in a cent box yet… I found a 1909 VDB and a beaten up 1909 back in 2007, my earliest finds so far until yesterday…
I have probably searched 350,000 cents over the past four years – this is the first one of these I have ever gotten:
Yes, 109 years young and Mr. Longacre’s daughter!
Well the pre-1982 bronze was consistent with my recent results, rather disappointing. Wheats were a disappointment too:
1944
1946
1950 – harshly cleaned
1951-D
That was it, four stinkin Lincolns.
San Francisco mints were a bit better than average, considering that I am deep in the Midwest and they are all nearing 40 years old now:
1968
1969 x 3
1970 x 2
1972 x 2
1974
I also had fewer Canadian earlies too
GVI
1943
QEII YH
1961
1964 x 4
But my best find, the one that made it all worth it was this one, about midway through the box when I let out a scream my kids outside heard and came in wondering what happened…
Never seen one of those in the wild, usually they are zoo'd by now.
My earliest find in a cent box yet… I found a 1909 VDB and a beaten up 1909 back in 2007, my earliest finds so far until yesterday…
I have probably searched 350,000 cents over the past four years – this is the first one of these I have ever gotten:
Yes, 109 years young and Mr. Longacre’s daughter!
Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
0
Comments
JH
Proof Buffalo Registry Set
Capped Bust Quarters Registry Set
Proof Walking Liberty Halves Registry Set
Awesome for a circ roll find!
I don't have the patience for cent rolls anymore. When I was a kid in the 1970s we could still find plenty of Wheaties, including earlies (sometimes one or two in each roll). But they're few and far between now, amongst the billions and billions of Zincolns.
I'll confine my roll searches to nickels if I ever do it again. The odds of oldies are better in the nickels. War nickels can still be found. I even got three Buffaloes once (but two were dateless).
I have never found an Indian cent in circulation, or anything pre-1909.
No, wait... I think I did find an Indian once, but it was a completely chewed-up slug with patches of green oxidation. The only thing that ID-ed it as an IHC was a little bit of the shield. Otherwise it was a mangled mess, with little detail visible. It was in one of those "give a penny/take a penny" dishes on a convenience store counter. I found a rusted out steel cent in one of those dishes once. People must toss their ugliest pennies in those dishes.
Nickels are probably the way to go right now, at least for completing a fairly good set. In just two years of searching I managed to fill almost an entire Whitman 1938 - 1960s folder.
It wasn't about the numismatic value, it was about "the find"
Nice,
Jeff
<< <i>I love this thread because it reminds me of being a kid searching through my parent's change collection bottle, and all my friend's parents change collection bottles for that matter.
It wasn't about the numismatic value, it was about "the find". >>
Ditto. Those were my feelings exactly. It doesn't matter what the find is worth- it's about the fact that he bagged a rare and elusive coin, "in the wild". That makes it a trophy find.
I feel the same way when I dig an interesting coin while detecting, regardless of what kind of condition it's in. A crusty, corroded large cent that I wouldn't pay five bucks for in a numismatic context is totally special and priceless to me if I dig it out of the ground myself. (That's only happened to me three times so far.)
PS- hey, check it out- SaorAlba ain't the only one to bag elusive game, lately!
Imagine my surprise one day when searching my rolls when I found an 1876 IHC!!
I still have it in my Whitman folder!!
- - Dave