Thinning Out My Coin Collection

In my quest for completeness, I accumulated a large amount of coin albums that I "HAD" to fill.  Not only did I try to fill the labeled holes, but I bought blank Dansco pages to add early proof and the satin mint set coins from 2005 -2010.  My the collection I was building was fairly nice, but I started running into several problems.

The collection was growing too large.  The space required to properly store my coins kept growing.  This included needing to keep purchasing new albums and totes to store them.  Next brings the issue of weight.  Everything was getting too heavy.  It was a chore to even look at my albums.  Pulling out all of my bins and find the albums I was looking for was too much.  I didn't even want to look at the coins anymore.

Interesting Argument On Killing The One Cent

I came across this video arguing the death of the penny.  There are some good points here.  Additionally, the cost of the one cent coin has risen to 2.4 cents as of 2011.

Coin Roll Hunting: 50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break # 6

I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results:

• Wheat Cents: 17
• Canadian Cents: 4
• "S" Mint Marks: 0
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 26%
• Total AU - BU Coins For Albums: 35
• Key Find(s): 1956D Toned Purple, Red(AU)  1962 Proof 

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents. The box had good copper results and there was a nice number of wheat cents with some rolls having 2.  This box provided slightly better Canadian Cent results than my last, but the curse of the Canadian Small Cent folder seems to be going strong.  As usual, there were multiple corroded and "road pennies" in this lot.  For the first time, I was skunked on "S" mint marks.  My favorite cent in this box was a monster toned 1956D with purple and red.

Canada Kills The Cent

Canada has announced they will no longer mint the 1 cent coin.   Starting this fall, Canada will begin removing the denomination from circulation.  The coin will still be accepted as legal tender.  Consumers paying with credit will still be able to make purchases in 1 cent increments, while cash purchases will eventually be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cent increment.

50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break # 5

I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results:

• Wheat Cents: 8
• Canadian Cents: 2
• "S" Mint Marks: 3
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 32%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 122
• Key Find(s): 1962D(AU) 1963D(AU) 1971D(AU)

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents. The box produced the best copper results to date even though there was only a small number of wheat cents.  Interestingly, this box provided the least amount of Canadian Cents to date.  This is ironic since I just bought a folder for Canadian Cents (since I have been pulling so many).  Even though there were multiple corroded/green cents in the box, there was a massive amount of AU-BU Lincoln Memorial Cents from the 1980's - 1990's.

50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break # 4

I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 15
• Canadian Cents: 18
• "S" Mint Marks: 5
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 30%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 31
• Key Find(s): 1958D(AU)

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents. The box produced the best copper results to date with a larger number of wheat cents.  There were multiple corroded/green cents in the box. I pulled a large quantity of key error dates and will inspect them in the future.

50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break # 3

I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 8
• Canadian Cents: 2
• "S" Mint Marks: 5
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 28%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 28
• Key Find(s): 1973(AU)

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents that might of come from someone's penny jar they were saving for many years.  There were plenty of dates from the 1960's including at least 30 1969D copies.  There were multiple corroded/green cents in the box.  The box produced better than average copper results. I pulled a large quantity of key error dates and will inspect them once my magnifier arrives.

50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break # 2

 I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 6
• Canadian Cents: 4
• "S" Mint Marks: 3
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 25%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 35
• Key Find: 1964 (AU) 

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents and they may of been partially searched for wheaties and nice memorial coppers.  There were multiple corroded/green cents in the box.  The box produced average copper results. I pulled a large quantity of key error dates and will inspect them once my magnifier arrives.

50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break

I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 12
• Canadian Cents: 8
• "S" Mint Marks: 5
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 27%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 75
• Key Find: 2000 Off Center 

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents and they produced ok results.  I found some really nice AU cents including a 1960D, 1964D, and 1970.  The box was light on Lincoln Wheat Cents but produced decent copper results.  I pulled 8 Canadian cents with the oldest being a 1957.  I pulled a large quantity of key error dates and will inspect them once my magnifier arrives.

10 Roll Cent Break

 I purchased 10 rolls of pennies last week from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 9 
• "S" Mint Marks: 6
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 25%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 10
• Key Find: 1962 (AU)

Verdict: These were customer rolled cents and they produced odds results.  I found some really nice AU cents including a 1962, 1968, and 1973.  There were multiple "S" mint marks in the rolls.  On the other hand, many of the coins were severely corroded or run over by a car; including a 1973S that could of graded MS 65 (RD) if the face wasn't scratched off.  This lot of coins seems to of been from a hoard of cents that either fell in the street or got mixed with some pennies collected by the homeless.

What Are My Motives?

Not long ago, I started thinking about ways to diversify my net worth while protecting myself against inflation.  I thought about investing in gold, but I am currently priced out of that market.  I also thought about silver and did buy some, but it is not cheap and there is a premium being associated with each transaction.  I wanted to get into a metal cheaply like the silver coins being minted in the early 1960's (1964 and back).

The current silver colored coins being minted in the U.S. today are copper-nickel clad.  Given the composition, weight, and denomination the current nickel could be a good investment. The nickel currently contains between $.05-$.07 of copper-nickel clad.  Another option would be to sort though pennies and save all cents minted 1981 and older as these are 95% copper. The nice thing about saving nickels is there is no sorting required.  All nickels in circulation currently have the same composition.  This may change in the next year or so as the government is investigating alternative metals.  The US Mint spends more to create the nickel than it is worth.

I currently search rolls of cents and nickels.  These are the items I am saving from the "hunt".

Nickels - Everything!  Nickels are currently made of 75% copper & 25% Nickel (Until further notice that is!).  I am also working on 2 Jefferson 1938 - Date sets with my kids.  This has proven to be a fun activity.

Cents - I am currently saving all pre 1981 cents for the copper value, high quality cents for a couple of albums we are doing as a family, and sorting certain dates for inspection of errors.

 I plan to post my finds here and hope to here from others as they set out on this low overhead treasure hunt!

Resources I have found useful:

http://www.survivalblog.com/nickels.html

http://www.coinflation.com/

http://www.numismaster.com

Striking It Rich With Pocket Change

A Guidebook Of Lincoln Cents

Complete Guide To Buffalo And Jefferson Nickels

http://www.lincolncentresource.com/

Coin Show Radio