picked up 40 boxes of pennies!

[jrf30]

I know that the 2009 pennies are not out yet. And the 2008s are not even totally in circulation yet, but I've been hearing more and more lately about people getting full boxes of 2008s. So i decided that it really makes senese to get boxes sooner rather than later. After all, every week more new ones are punched out at hte mint and more old ones are taken from circulation. The sooner we get boxes the better our odds. And I sure don't want another 1.5 BILLION of the 2009 cents mixed into the circulating coins when I am gettig boxes.

So I ordered 10 boxes of coins from my local bank. And then did it again at another ... and another ... and another.

Picked them all up. Now i have 40 boxes sitting at home.

It will tkae me a while to go through them all (a month or more). But I'd rather go through boxes packed in December and Janaury when i get to them than boxes packed in February or March. even if I go through them in February or March.

So although I have gone thorugh NONE of them "yet" I now have 40 boxes sitting as a little wall in my office, indenting the carpet and making my office look pretty unique.

I'll work them off. And be happy to have them. But getting them now instead of when I need them was "hopefully" a good idea and will pay off. :-)

Oh, and halves? I have had 6 boxes this year, and 5 were skunks (except for NIFCs). Just like last year. So, not much on halves. I'm doing some, and all the loose halves and hand rolled I can get, but boxes still not working here in AZ. So - bring on the pennies. :-)

 

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[mistergee]

i think thats a great idea....although 40 boxes is insane....my eyes would give out halfway through ..funny you should mention this ...this morning i was thinking with all the new pennies coming out its going to be hard not to get stuck with the 08's...i was going to go around and see what i can find before it was too late...now i wish i had ordered some....good luck and let us know what you find

 

[HolyDiver]

This is madness, but one hell of an idea! If I wasn't a poor college kid, I would try at least to pickup 10 boxes at once. All I can say is God help you while going thru them all! haha

 

[GMan00001]

Picked them all up. Now i have 40 boxes sitting at home.

Sounds like a full day or two of searching...

 

[jrf30]

First five boxes searched. (I use a Ryedale)

Found about 2,200 coppers (17%) and 28 wheats. Only 28 wheats. (5.6 per box) Below my average of 7.1 per box, but 28 more than I had yesterday. Oldest was 1936, so not much there either ... but again still more than I had yesterday. :-)

I don't normally do 5 in a night, but I guess the excitement of getting them all today got to me. LOL. So, 5 down, and 35 more to go.

 

[bourassa5]

sounds like fun but that seams a low wheat count, i have never goten lower then 10 per box and my high was 84. my average is around 13. maby its you guys in the west coast that cant get alot of wheats? o well, good luck on the rest of them!

 

[jrf30]

sounds like fun but that seams a low wheat count, i have never goten lower then 10 per box and my high was 84. my average is around 13. maby its you guys in the west coast that cant get alot of wheats? o well, good luck on the rest of them!

It is true. Here out west things are MUCH lower than back east. There aren't as many old coins here. Just like there are not as many old antiques here. I get stuff form my sister in VA all the time when I go back to visit her. We go out and buy things that cost $50 there and cost $300 in AZ. As for coins, my halves suck big time, and the pennies are much lower than back eaast. But at least I get SOME wheats (Better than over 97% skunks on half boxes last year!) so I still enjoy the pennies.

But it was 78 degrees yesterday, so there is SOMETHING good to say about being in AZ instead of back east. :-)

 

[Codes]

Have fun dumping those.

-Codes

 

[jrf30]

Dumped 10,300 of them this morning. Along with $500 of halves and $250 of quarters.

Took me about 7 minutes at the machine and teller line total. :-)


Great machine in this local bank. GREAT machine. (And great people too. I'm lucky witht his bank)

 

[treasurefiend]

Thats wierd that there is so few wheats....

 

[crazyjarhead]

What's a Ryedale? That's a lot of pennies. 2 boxes wore me out

 

[Silver Stripe]

There is a forum for penny junkies. One guy over there weighs his boxes and does the lighter ones first to dump as there is no way to do all he orders- lighter weight=more zinc. He posted a pic of what looked like a pallet of bricks only they were penny boxes, made mention there was some concern if his basement floor was cracking under the weight LOL. Definately in need of a 12 step program over there but better to spend $$$ on $$$ than other things haha. Here it is if you want to check it out. http://realcent.forumco.com/default.asp
HH Mark

 

[~Audiz~]

But it was 78 degrees yesterday, so there is SOMETHING good to say about being in AZ instead of back east. :-)

Ah, you are sooo lucky with the warm weather. It is Freezing this part of NY
I wish you and your eyes good luck with searching those 40 boxes...I haven't even attempted on getting a full box of pennies yet....

~Audiz~

 

[coinlover]

What's a Ryedale? That's a lot of pennies. 2 boxes wore me out

A ryedale is a machine that sorts the copper pennies from the zinc ones. They are expensive but they are nice to have if you go through tons of pennies.

 

[mountainman 2]

You're going to need glasses looking at all those small coins. Hope you find a good date or maybe even an Indian cent.

 

[wiedz]

You may want to look at the zinc pennies before you take them back. I think I remember another poster here saying that his ryedale sorted IHC and some older wheats into the zinc pile.

 

[HolyDiver]

Are you planning on keeping all the copper? If you are, why?

 

[jrf30]

answers to two posts.

I watcht he ZINC side of the output from my Ryedale as it sorts. This way when old looking coins pop out that are face up I can flip them real quick and keep the machine on. I see if iti s ahweat or memorial. And IHC's are easy to see coming out of the Ryedale. Yes they go to the zinc side, but I see them.

The wheats that don't go to the copper side seem to be the 1941 and older. After 1944 seem to always go to copper. The 1943 also goes to zinc instead of copper. And yes I get some that go to the zinc side and I pull them out. So i get all the coins, by watching as I work the machine.

Secondly - why keep the coppers? Because they will be worth something soon. Last year bags of $50 of copper memorials (not wheats) were selling pretty consistently on Ebay for about $130 per bag. Because of the price of copper. Now it is down, and they are selling for about $60, which is not worth it. But I expect sometime in the next few years that prices of copper will go back up, and then the sales pricve will be about $130 again. I look at it this way. If I invest in a mutual fund with dollar cost averaging (meaning $50 per week every week of the year, or something like that) my goal would be to earn 12% per year each year consistently, or double my money in 6 years. Do I think $50 of memorials will be worth $130 in LESS than 6 years? I do! So, if I can turn this form $50 to $130 in maybe 2 years again before the price goes back up to that, that is AWESOME> And UNLIKE mutual funds, I can NEVER lose money on it, as each penny will ALWAYS be worth at least a penny.

So an investment that could earn me 30 - 40% per year for a few years or MORE, and can't ever lose at all? NOt a bad investment.

Do I put away $50 per week? At least! FOrtunatley I have good space in a third car garage. So it builds. I have about 160,000 coppers saved in 16 months. I get about 2,100 in a $25 box, since they don't pack as tight when loose. So, that's 76 boxes full of penies so far. And about $1,600 put aside that I hope will be worth about $4,160 when copper goes back up. And that doesn't include the 3,800 wheats or the hadnful of IHCs. And mOST importantly ....... I really ENJOY doing it. I play golf. Every time I go it costs me on average $75. And I enjoy it. I do pennies, and every time I do it i FIND money, instead of spending it. And I keep the wheats, and I can sell the memorial coppers again later for a profit, and it is as much fun to me as golf is. I said it in a different post, and I say it again - you gotta ENJOY this, or it is not worth it "just" for hte profit or the silver or the wheats.