Penny Roll Stats?

[NSR60]

Around here, copper pennies are becoming noticeably scarcer. Lately, the ratio has been slightly better than 1 in 10; in pocket change, it's even less. But I've consistently found one wheat penny for every $5 searched, like clockwork.

Anyway, I was wondering if these results are in line with what others are seeing. Thoughts?

 

[Dozer D]

Vern: you may be right on the money with your guess, I run about 10-12 Wheaties per box, and about 12-15% coppers. Keep at it, you're doing fine.

 

[Vern2]

Finished the bag of 5,000 pennies. Whew. GS said he is ready for another bag. I said, "no, gonna be rolls for awhile now, after we take a short break". Here are the final results:

510 coppers
10 wheaties
3 Canadian 1 cent

I was not super pleased with the 510 copper, but okay with the wheats. Ten was our goal when opening the bag.

So, would you say this is below average? I kinda think it is. But not enough to quit by no means. We had fun. Plus GS now has 10 more wheats to add to his collection.

 

[Dozer D]

You did fine, any good dates on the wheats? That's where the fun sometimes rest, finding some good dates or extremely fine looking coins. This is the game I play with in finding the "best of the best" for the 13-grandkids that I have given Vol.1,2,3, of the Lincoln series folders.

 

[Vern2]

I'll have to get my coin book out and check the dates. Thirteen GC? Wow. I have four.

 

[NSR60]

I went through ten more rolls last week; nothing out of the ordinary--one wheat and 63 coppers. The big difference was, no 2017-P's this time (I usually find about four or five). And I've almost never come across a 2009 that's clean and in decent shape.

 

[NSR60]

I finally went through a $25.00 box today. The results seem to be fairly in line:

Coppers: 387
Wheats: 9 (one 1923, the rest from the 40's and 50's)
Canadians: 3 (two coppers from the '60's, one from the dodecagonal era)
2009's: 10 (only two or three in good shape)
2017-P's: 0 (these are definitely disappearing)
Dimes: 1

Not great, not terrible, always fun. HH.

 

[wildcarrot]

Inevitably the coppers will become harder to find, with all of us out there enforcing Gresham's Law. Right now, you'd be lucky to get a 10 percent premium from a dealer, but the wheats and occasional IHP's keep it worthwhile. And finding a dime in a penny roll=instant win.

My dad brought home a couple of Morgans from Vegas once. In the early '70's, before precious metals really took off, some people were still using them in the slots.

In the late 50's early 60's my Dad would take the family to Vegas a couple of times a year. We always stayed in some iconic hotel. Once we got there I never remember seeing my Dad much. The one thing I do remember is how he complained about all the Silver Dollars that he was winning and lugging around. He would have them all over the room. At the time he thought they were heavy, dirty and just a pain to deal with!!!

 

[NSR60]

In the late 50's early 60's my Dad would take the family to Vegas a couple of times a year. We always stayed in some iconic hotel. Once we got there I never remember seeing my Dad much. The one thing I do remember is how he complained about all the Silver Dollars that he was winning and lugging around. He would have them all over the room. At the time he thought they were heavy, dirty and just a pain to deal with!!!

They probably were. But if we knew then what we know now...

My Dad brought back an 1896 and an 1898, to go with the 1880 that I had bought. At the time, I marveled at how old they were. While it doesn't happen often, I have recently gotten coins in change that are older now than these Morgans were then.

 

[LooseChange]

...as each year passes and more cents are minted, the percentage of copper found will continue to go down as the total number of copper cents minted compared to the total number of all type of cents minted will be a smaller percentage...

I like your analysis.

One thing to keep in mind though is that for all of the 1 cent coins that die of natural causes each year, the majority of those will be of the newly minted type.

Copper coated zinc cents are not even remotely as durable as the solid brass cents. All it takes to destroy a zinc cent is a small nick in the copper layer and incidental exposure to the elements. That zincoln will melt away from the inside out. A brass one on the other hand will only discolor.

 

[digger27]

How about this hunt for skewing those numbers on one cent roll hunting?
I don't hunt rolls much but once in awhile I pick up some one cent rolls here and there just because I have fun looking for wheats.
I picked up 4 rolls on one visit and when I got them home I dumped them out and saw a bunch of dirty coins.
I thought I had gotten some rolls from another hunter that just rolled up his dug up coins and dumped them at the bank...at first.
Looking closer I noticed that wasn't dirt but rust, and all of them that I could get the details off of were wheat cents.
I had 199 steel cents and one zincoln staring at me!
I was shocked.
I figured they were kept in a jar or a box in a damp area for decades, how someone managed to gather up so many steel cents I have no idea but I suppose it was pretty easy during the war years to do it.

I used a lemon juice and salt bath on them and most except a couple of the most rusted ones cleaned up great...still have them too.

 

[enamel7]

The percentage on copper should be a little higher when you take into account how the zincolns disappear in the ground and coppers don't!

 

[Poor Mans Gold]

This weeks coppers have been pretty good. I have been seeing about 25%-30% copper pennies. I don't remove them any longer. A few years ago, I made 40 $50 bags of copper pennies. This weeks MWR boxes been averaging over 20 Wheaties. I then started on CWR's. The first ones I opened seemed to be old wrappers. They were. The first fourteen rolls were all Wheaties. Not bad. Later this week I'll go through them to sort.

 

[Dozer D]

I'll have to get my coin book out and check the dates. Thirteen GC? Wow. I have four.

Vern2: you are also aware that the year 1982 have both zinc's and coppers. Hard to tell them apart unless you have a gram scale. If I recall, the coppers weigh 3.1 grams, and the zinc is 2.5 g. This should give you more binding playtime with the GS.