I wonder what was in this batch of pennies...

[sagittarius98]

I wonder what was in this batch of cents...

Pennies add up for Milford man - Milford, MA - The Milford Daily News

 

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[madwest]

Article says he started saving an average of 2.5 cents per day in 1977. It also says that he saved over 62,000 cents. There are 12,784 days in 35yr. That would suggest an average of 4.85 cents per day. For the sake of this academic exercise, we'll split it and say 3.675 is the average number of cents he saved per day.

Obviously, from 1977 to 1982 all of what he saved were 95% (3.675 x 365 x 5 = 6,707).

Assuming a linear decline in percentage of 95% cents from 100% in 1982 to 28% in 2012, copper % can be assumed to be 64% as an average over the entire period. Thus (3.675 x 365 x 30) x 0.64 = 25,754 95% and (3.675 x 365 x 30) x 0.36 = 14,487 Zn'ers.

Assuming an average of 0.5% wheats for the 32,461 95% cents, there were 163 wheat back cents.

In summary, 32,298 95% Cu Memorial cents, 14,487 Zn Memorial cents, and 163 95% Cu Wheat cents.

Mind you the article says $620 face value. Our analysis accounts for $470 face value. Any way around, it sounds like a few afternoons with the sorter.

 

[sagittarius98]

I was talking in terms of wheat cents and IH cents, not really the copper percentages.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

come on now, appreciate his efforts to help ya out...

I was talking in terms of wheat cents and IH cents, not really the copper percentages.

 

[Chrystal]

I wonder if he ever went through them?

 

[BlackOut]

I was talking in terms of wheat cents and IH cents, not really the copper percentages.

Maybe your original question should have been clearer then. There is no way of telling now, who knows, it may have been loaded or the guy may have culled them all and may still have those in a box somewhere. Madwest provided data for a question with an answer that could at least be statistically assumed and I agree, his efforts should be appreciated...

 

[madwest]

I was talking in terms of wheat cents and IH cents, not really the copper percentages.

It's cool. I guessed that that might have been what you meant. It was fun to think through the possible Cu % mostly because there are logical assumptions that can be made and an actual analysis. That is the "clinical" (or mundane) approach. The more exciting exercise is to speculate about the rare treasures that might have been mixed in.

We wonder about the treasure that might have been concealed in this hoard. I hate to think about the hundreds of tons of cents that were lost before the melt ban. There were multiple high volume operations at the time. ie: The History of Pincher Processing LLC

Could you imagine the number of "keepers" lost in that span?

 

[sagittarius98]

It's cool. I guessed that that might have been what you meant. It was fun to think through the possible Cu % mostly because there are logical assumptions that can be made and an actual analysis. That is the "clinical" (or mundane) approach. The more exciting exercise is to speculate about the rare treasures that might have been mixed in.

We wonder about the treasure that might have been concealed in this hoard. I hate to think about the hundreds of tons of cents that were lost before the melt ban. There were multiple high volume operations at the time. ie: The History of Pincher Processing LLC

Could you imagine the number of "keepers" lost in that span?

Thank you also for the other piece of data. I was just stating what my intent was in posting this, but it is also cool to find a possible amount of copper in that.

 

[Yinzi50]

It's cool. I guessed that that might have been what you meant. It was fun to think through the possible Cu % mostly because there are logical assumptions that can be made and an actual analysis. That is the "clinical" (or mundane) approach. The more exciting exercise is to speculate about the rare treasures that might have been mixed in.

We wonder about the treasure that might have been concealed in this hoard. I hate to think about the hundreds of tons of cents that were lost before the melt ban. There were multiple high volume operations at the time. ie: The History of Pincher Processing LLC

Could you imagine the number of "keepers" lost in that span?

Midwest, thanks for linking that story which provided some detailed information about the coin circulation.