Percentage of Copper Lincoln Memorials in circulation and results of 2017 searches
mannie gray
Posts: 7,259 ✭✭✭✭✭
In 2017 I searched approx. 100,000 Lincoln Cents.
I have an interest in what is actually circulating out there, and I separated the coppers from the Zincolns more out of curiosity than an attempt to speculate in copper.
I was surprised by several things:
Despite being in Southern Illinois, I came across a small but surprising number of Canadian Cents (60), oldest being 1964.
1 1996 Sweden 50 Ore, one Bermuda Cent.
364 Wheat Cents found.
Noteworthy coins (pre-1940 or varieties)
1910 (2)
1916
1917-S nice problem-free VG+/F
1918
1919 (2)
1919-S AG, with prominent cud on reverse obscuring nearly the entire wheat stem
1920
1920-D F
1924
1928-D VF
1929 VF
1935
1936 (2)
1937 (2)
1937-D F
1938 (2) both VF
S mints included the coins mentioned above, as well as
1940-S
1943-S
1944-S (3)
1945-S (3)
1947-S
1948-S (2)
1951-S (2)
1953-S
Lincoln Memorial S mints were very scarce...I didn't keep track of them but it had to be less than 20 found, (2) 1973-S, and (2) 1971-S.
Surprising coins that were tough to find: 1960LD (just a couple), 1969 (less than 5), 1971 (less than 10), 1959 (7), 1961 (7), 1962 (10) and 1963 (just 12).
The 1943-S was the only steel I found. Best condition was a nicely toned 1944 AU++/UNC.
I also found a 1954-D/D/D RPM#1, 1972 DDO Die 8, 1970-D DDO Die 1 (really uncommon), 2014 DDO Die 3, nice unc., and a 1984-D with a huge obverse cud which I sold very quickly, and several other RPMs and minor doubled dies which I have forgotten.....damn it.
No off centers or blank planchets were found---I have very poor luck finding these....
I did, however, find 8 dimes in the cent rolls.
Copper coins consisted of 15.7% which slightly surprised me, as I would have guessed 10-12% by looking through what I receive in change.
2018 my goal is to search 250,000.
Happy new year to all the great folks on this site! 
Comments
Thanks.
Coppers seemed to hang in at about 20% for years and years as the zincs corrode away. They are finally starting to drop because they are being removed by the public (probably). .36% for wheaties would be a little high in my area but it does seem there are fewer near the cities.
I'm surprised you didn't think the '66's were tough. Were there more than 20?
The irony is that every copper removed from circulation requires 3 zincs to replace it because the life expectancy is so low. This suggests an extra 40 or 50 billion cents will be needed over the next several years just to replace the coppers. All else being equal we might be going back up to annual cent mintages of 15 billion. Of course these toxic slugs don't get the circulation they once did so all else may not be equal.
The change an individual gets seems to be just a little different than what exists in rolls. I presume this is because people sometimes tender different coins based on their perception of the person. I get an inordinate number of states quarters (60%+) in pocket change but rolls are pretty solid at around 58%.
Frankly I'm a little surprised that you didn't get a complete set of memorial cents. I guess the reason is simply there are so few coppers left and the attrition even on them from the '60's and '70's is still sky high. Some might think that it's because of the location away from the San Francisco mint but cents used to actually circulate and many S mint coins would have made it to Illinois.
It seems I'm always surprised when I look at these stats.
@cladking
I did assemble a set of Memorials.....sorry if my post was confusing.
And I did not find the 1966 scarcer than the 1965 or 1967. As a matter of fact, the 65 was harder than the 66.
I found enough 1966 to not really count them, but it had to be 25+ coins.
The 1959 Philly was a surprise for me. It was really tough, along with the 1960.
I expected the 1969 and 1971 to be hard; they have never been abundant here, not even in the 1970s.
Most common pre-1970 were 1964-D, 1969-D, 1968-D and 1968, in that order.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Two cuds and not a single clip, even a tiny rim clip, is surprising to me. I would have bet on you finding a 1972 with a rim clip before one with a doubled die.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
Nope, no clips, unless I was to count tiny ones on the rim which could be masquerading as PMD.
Also I forgot to mention that I found only (3) 2017-P, one of which had seen a great deal of apparent circulation....probably the rarest find of them all!
2017 is probably the first year I didn't search Lincoln cents.
I used to religiously look through about 100-125k a year. I always found decent stuff, but it is tedious work and I finally lost interest. My best was the big 1983 ddr that later graded PCGS MS64RD. My highlight from the days of the hunt, and I still have it.
Always pulled the coppers at around 20 percent like cladking said. (Still have them too, much to the chagrin of my wife!)
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
I did good..I did 4-$25 boxes a week for the first 6 months then moved up to 6 boxes a wk for the second 6 months of the year.. which balanced out almost to your figures per 100 thousand. My hot one was the 2015 DDO finding 83 of them. I posted some good error finds to the forum also.
What I did note, was the amount of corrosion on a lot of the cents both copper & zinc...I would have never figured that many were contaminated..... My only draw back was the banks were not happy with me bringing back so many of them wk after wk. This year I'll do maybe one box a wk if that.
It's getting to the point that some of the tougher '80's dates are hard to find in any condition without spots, corrosion, or tarnish.
Zincs have a very poor shelf life and many will linger for years with spots before they disappear.
That's a great find and also a LOT of work!!!
Did you find any 1960 small dates (from either mint)? Back in the '60's I found several from Denver in circulation, but to this day I've never heard of anyone finding a 1960 Philly small date cent in circulation.
Wow... that is a lot of cent searching.... I have a tough time getting to my pile of pocket change every winter... I save pocket change through the year, then search it all at once - unless something jumps out when I get it at the store..... I just do not have the time for that amount of searching... I keep wishing for a 36 hour day.... Just too many fun things to do....
Cheers, RickO
Out of the just over a 1/2 million cents I got.. I believe there was 18 boxes of all new 2016's no Ds...and not one box of 17Ps, Which I was looking for. I'm still weighing 82s for copper and 83s for the big copper one and the DDR. Most all the copper cents I stripped out... I have not even started looking through most of that yet, hell, I don't even know what I'm going to do with them all..when I'm done going through them.
That is an absolutely heroic job you did................and I may say, quite worth the effort!
Pete
I found (2) 1960-D SD, one was an RPM....I think it was #103 if I recall.
@DCW I agree with your statement. It is not only tedious work but also very dirty on the fingers.
@mannie gray
what do you do with the copper cents when your done going through them?
Thanks for posting you data
I found these searching rolls, [I do not search them anymore]
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb, Ricko
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Yes, dirty work indeed. I do kind if miss it, though...the thrill of the hunt. I equate it to playing the lottery without ever buying a ticket. You never know when "the big one" will show up in a roll. And if you find nothing at all, at least you have your money back.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
clearly, the only reasonable thing to do with a half million cents is to put them in blue plastic 55 gallon drums in your garage where you keep nothing else but a red Ferrari
...and your wife can't go in the garage anymore
@DCW
You are exactly right. It satisfies the gambling urge without any possible loss, and it's fun too.
I wait until I get a bunch of them and then I sell them to a local guy for 60c a roll, or I trade for 90% with him.
@Jimnight
You, sir, are a roll-searcher that I would strive to be.......wow...heckuva job......
Besides the run of DDOs what were some of your better finds ?
I haven't searched rolls in ages... but when I did, I was doing it slightly differently. I searched wheat cents. The local dealer had standard buy and sell prices for wheat cents. I worked out with him that I would buy them, search them, then sell them back. No skin off his nose. I enjoyed looking at the wheat cents more than I did looking at the circulated stuff, even considering the premium between the buy and sell prices.
That wouldn't have worked for $100/week, but amounts I cared about it was just fine.
I considered doing the same for junk silver but the prices were higher and the varieties were less interesting to me so I stuck with the wheats.
I'm sure there's still lots to be found and it's a very worthwhile pastime. But all wheats are already searched to a greater or lesser extent. This won't necessarily affect the incidence of varieties or other esoteric coins but it certainly affects other distributions. The nice thing about the memorials is that relatively small percentages are searched at all. This raises the probability of very low incidence coins to circulate.
It's a shame I never thought to collect die varieties back in the old days. Indeed, there were so few collectors of varieties many aren't readily available in higher grades. All dates of memorials might appear even in nice Unc condition but quite a few are getting rarely encountered even in chXF. Indeed, the tiny survivorship makes it very difficult to find the toughies. For instance, I haven't see nice XF+ '68, '69, and '70 in some time. Each of these dates were known be tougher back in the day.
Of course the number of memorials is simply staggering. While circulating coins are mostly later date with a few older coppers and zincs there are untold billions of cents littering sidewalks and sock drawers. There is a huge hoard that people can't be bothered to cash or toss in the trash. While this hoard is only about three years old in other denominations the cents in "storage" can be far older. A significant fraction is even twenty years old or more.
It's not just the chances of getting scarce coin (coins that will be scarce in the future) are better in memorials, but at least for me, they are simply more interesting than most assortments of wheats. Even if cents were recalled today there will be a lot around or a long time.
@mannie gray
what were some of your better finds ?
Give me a couple days to put a partial list together for your thread, lt will be fun. I still have many more to go through, like the 72s...I seen some hard to find ones.
What system did you and the dealer use to prevent you from getting wheats that you had already searched? Marked the rolls or ...?