Noob curiousity about shiny 1968-D cent in pocket change

apollo17 · January 7, 2015 6:47AM

Admitted: habitually sequester copper cents from my pocket change (even '82s by the ring tone when bounced).

But I'd never seen one as old as the (shakily) pictured 1968-D, that had remained so shiny and still-detailed.

In surely naive coin-newbie curiosity: (aside from mystical powers,) is there any way to tell if someone popped open a 1968 mint set, or maybe by the imperfections if it perhaps sat in a bank roll, swam in a "loose change" jar, or chilled in the pocket of a forgotten pair of bell-bottoms, for the last 47 years?

Thanks!

jmski52 · January 7, 2015 6:49AM

My guess is that someone broke open a bank roll. It happens.

Hey, welcome to the Forum!

winky · January 7, 2015 7:22AM

Welcome to the forum. Nice post.

291fifth · January 7, 2015 7:29AM

I received an essentially red unc. 1959-D cent in change last week. Coins of this period were widely hoarded and some of those hoards are now being spent, possibly by heirs of the original owner.

lasvegasteddy · January 7, 2015 7:34AM

welcome n hi

is there anyway to to tell....nope

looks like it's from a roll or bank bag due to it's color
rumor is
some collectors "salt" circulation to inspire others to collect....

sparky64 · January 7, 2015 7:43AM

Nice Lincoln.

cladking · January 7, 2015 9:57AM

My mystical powers suggest it's a mint set coin with a bit too much of a haze
and too much marking above the date. It's about the 50th %ile for the date and
having two problems is sufficient to assure it's keeper.

Welcome aboard.

Shamika · January 7, 2015 11:21AM

That's a nice find.

Timbuk3 · January 7, 2015 11:23AM

Welcome, sweet !!!

hchcoin · January 7, 2015 11:37AM

Nice first post. Welcome to the forums.

crypto79 · January 7, 2015 11:58AM

I am always amazed how much the mint lowered the relief of the design over the next 30 years.

DaveG · January 7, 2015 12:30PM

Every so often I'll get a run of really nice 40 to 50 year-old coins in my change.

I don't know if they've come from old rolls recently broken open, a really old change jar or from mint sets.

Wherever they've been, I enjoy receiving them!

Type2 · January 7, 2015 12:57PM

to the nut house.

apollo17 · January 7, 2015 1:23PM

Thanks for the cent-source speculations - and divinations - and for the kind welcomes too.

Seems like a friendly place around here!

Guess the dazzle of this coin got me thinking of its life story. It certainly is NOT going into the copper bullion box.

Not sure what I'm in for now if the above pic is appropriate. Comments got this OP looking very carefully at my own photo, and now I keep seeing an alien face above the six in 1968.

3sidesofsilver · January 7, 2015 1:26PM

I got a 1959 just last week in change; as red as when it left the mint 55 years ago. Since even most 5 year old Lincolns look like heck, I believe yours, mine, and others like it were most likely recently liberated from some collection.

renman95 · January 7, 2015 1:37PM

<< I am always amazed how much the mint lowered the relief of the design over the next 30 years. >>

crypto, isn't this the elusive 1968 D High Relief Lincoln Cent with rolled rim?

dlmtorts · January 7, 2015 2:00PM

"Comments got this OP looking very carefully at my own photo, and now I keep seeing an alien face above the six in 1968."

I see it too! Alien or devil!

GrumpyEd · January 7, 2015 2:18PM

68 cents had that high relief from the old master design. It was so worn out that the motto was moved all the way out to touch the rim and there's not much detail left.

If you find a nice 69 to put next to it you'll see how drastically they changed the design, less relief and more detail.

It's fun to find old red coppers in circulation

Type2 · January 7, 2015 3:20PM

<< "Comments got this OP looking very carefully at my own photo, and now I keep seeing an alien face above the six in 1968."

I see it too! Alien or devil! >>

I don't see a Alien or a Devil I see this guy

ambro51 · January 7, 2015 10:13PM

It's neat to find these and I'm surprised the OP who does Cherrypick nice Lincoln's from change is in any way surprised by this coin. Remember that the sixties was a roll hoarding era and lots survive.

DCW · January 7, 2015 10:27PM

Nice coin. However, it is not at all unusual to find brilliant uncirculated cents from the ' 60s still popping up. Be sure to examine the mintmark and see if you have the D/D RPM and flip it over and check for the doubled die reverse. The DDR is pretty dramatic and will turn your good day into a great one...

TwoSides2aCoin · January 7, 2015 11:09PM

Keep your eyes fixed on finding …. That's all you need to do. The more you discover the more addicted you become. Be careful. This hobby sucks.

ricko · January 7, 2015 11:16PM

Welcome aboard apollo17....nice change find.... Cheers, RickO

SaorAlba · January 7, 2015 11:49PM

If you roll search religiously and on a weekly basis like I do you will churn up some pretty interesting stuff. About three months ago I bought $30 worth of customer wrapped rolls that had come into my bank from an estate - they were all rolled in 1964 as there were lots of shiny new 1964-D cents in the rolls - but the best part for me was that a little over half of the coins were wheat cents, lots of red 1950s etc.

About a year ago I found a nice rosy 1938 Lincoln in a roll.

And last week I hit a jackpot with nickels, literally dozens of AUish 1938-1941 dated nickels that must have been broken out of a collection somewhere.

CaptHenway · January 8, 2015 1:08AM

When I worked at a coin shop and we were breaking up partial sets from albums and I saw something like this and did not need it for inventory, I just put it in the cash register and gave it out as change. If there was a lot of stuff we just dep[osited it at the bank where it got recycled into the money supply.

zippcity · January 8, 2015 3:57AM

Someone in my area is cashing in some rolls, I have found around a 100 coins recently, with dates ranging from 1958-1970. All AU , with some nice color .

johnny9434 · January 8, 2015 5:02AM

<< My guess is that someone broke open a bank roll. It happens.

Hey, welcome to the Forum!

>>

ditto and welcome to the forums as well.

seanq · January 8, 2015 5:05AM

<< Be sure to examine the mintmark and see if you have the D/D RPM and flip it over and check for the doubled die reverse. The DDR is pretty dramatic and will turn your good day into a great one... >>

This. The easiest PUP for the doubled die reverse is the tails of the S's in STATES, though the doubling on E PLURIBUS UNUM is very dramatic as well.

Sean Reynolds

cladking · January 8, 2015 6:53AM

<< Nice coin. However, it is not at all unusual to find brilliant uncirculated cents from the ' 60s still popping up. >>

Quite true but usually the BU coins you see are dated 1964 or earlier because
not nearly as many coins were set aside after 1964. Of those set aside the ma-
jpority are one cent coins and half and dollars make up most of the rest. Nickel
availability is spotty and there aren't any dimes or quarters.

apollo17 · January 8, 2015 7:23AM

This OP was just having a bit of fun sequestering a certain metal. Now after reading your intriguing comments, I'm sitting with an LED penlight and magnifier - and probably will be looking more carefully at other coins in future.

Forgive any incorrect terminology etc (still learning). It does seem noticeably higher relief than many later cents I looked at, and that the I G W Trust later moved further away from the rim. I never before noticed a very clear VDB as part of the bottom downslope of the Lincoln image. The lettering and numbering is certainly thicker, but seems clear and does not look doubled to me. The mintmark just a single punch as well. After briefly searching the term online, I'm not yet quite getting the ideas behind "rolled rim" vs normal, wire etc. rim, but will keep looking.

Thanks very much for your discussions. I'm being careful since this stuff seems like it could be addictive.

(Oh, and the "face" - now I'm thinking Davros(?) - is somewhat less visible by eye than in the photo, but still is there. Just normal pareidolia, I hope…

)

koynekwest · January 8, 2015 1:54PM

I love your analogy with the bell bottoms! Welcome!

mustangmanbob · January 9, 2015 1:33AM

I recently liberated about 300 - 400 BU 1959 - 1969 or so Lincolns in Dallas. They were all in original bank rolls, but we had collie puppies.

They were stored in a closet on the floor in open plastic tubs.

The puppies found them, and drug out a bunch of rolls and chewed the paper, and, apparently, had a blast scattering the pennies all over the closet and bedroom.

I just swept them up, and spent them over about a week period. Some of them had great color, but off they went.

topstuf · January 9, 2015 1:42AM

When I was a kid and not dodging velociraptors, I'd accompany my mom to Smith & Lang's Dept Store in Stockton, CA.

They WASHED ....EVERY.. coin they dispensed thru the store as change.
Yes. It ruined the coins. But they were SHINY! REAL SHINY!
And the whole town would remark on Smith & Lang's ....EVERY... time they saw shiny coins being used.

Now, THAT is advertising.

mediatech · February 2, 2018 10:18AM

It was apollo17's post from January 7, 2015 7:47AM about a shiny 1968-D cent in pocket change that made me join your ranks. I had a similar experience with the coin pictured on my profile. I thought it odd that such a coin could exist and in such new looking condition. Someone mentioned that a bank roll may have been opened, so I guess this is what happened in my case.

Jimnight · February 2, 2018 10:39AM

Nice!

BuffaloIronTail · February 2, 2018 10:47AM

I throw a Wheatie back into circulation every now and then. The 1968 coins were quite popular in the day because the Mint started putting Mint Marks back on the coins after three years.

Pete

jmlanzaf · February 2, 2018 11:36AM

I regularly dump BU rolls from the 60s and 70s into Coinstar machines. Especially shotgun rolls with no date visible on either end. You just can't sell them for over face, so there's really no point in my keeping them in inventory. I dumped about 40 rolls in a Coinstar right before Christmas, mostly mid 1960s I found as I cracked them open.

I've also dumped partial Mint sets into Coinstars. Makes for the prettiest bucket the Coinstar has ever seen. Again, if someone's cut the 1/2 dollar out for example, you can't sell them for over face and there's only so much crap I want to trip over.

As I mentioned on another thread, I'm close to dumping a few complete proof sets into the Coinstar. When they are selling for 50 cents over face, they just aren't worth bothering with.

cladking · February 2, 2018 12:13PM

@mediatech said:
It was apollo17's post from January 7, 2015 7:47AM about a shiny 1968-D cent in pocket change that made me join your ranks. I had a similar experience with the coin pictured on my profile. I thought it odd that such a coin could exist and in such new looking condition. Someone mentioned that a bank roll may have been opened, so I guess this is what happened in my case.

Welcome aboard.

There are some pretty nice coins dumped into circulation. Some come from rolls but the majority are from mint sets. For the main part any larger denomination old coin is at best only XF because the odds of it being repeatedly or continuously out of circulation for so long are infinitesimal. When you see a nice XF '69 quarter you can be quite confident it's spent only the last five years in circulation.

With pennies you can't be as sure because many are not circulating.

mvs7 · February 2, 2018 12:34PM

Welcome!

ricko · February 3, 2018 7:58AM

@mediatech .....Welcome aboard.... Yes, often we see an older cent - or even dimes or nickels - that has probably never been in commerce for all those years.... old mint sets, bank rolls or sock drawer clean out....Cheers, RickO

CaptHenway · February 3, 2018 12:18PM

When I worked for Harlan Berk's coin shop in Chicago and was breaking down collections, I returned a lot of stuff to circulation.

jmlanzaf · February 3, 2018 12:43PM

@CaptHenway said:
When I worked for Harlan Berk's coin shop in Chicago and was breaking down collections, I returned a lot of stuff to circulation.

My favorites are all those retail sets (QVC, HSN) with the beautiful, fancy packaging that i have to fill my recycle bin with before I can get my face value. LOL. Talk about lost time. SMH.

Noob curiousity about shiny 1968-D cent in pocket change

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