Huge Wheat Penny Explosion I Found Coin Roll Hunting A 25 Dollar Box Plus Mint Memorials

 

I just got finished coin roll hunting a $25 box of pennies I picked up from the bank. This box was about half machine rolled pennies and half customer returned pennies. Customer returned pennies are kind of a mixed bag. Sometimes you find some really cool things and at other times you are just going through coins that have been searched by another collector. I was just about halfway through this box, mostly opening up the customer returned rolls and I had only found two wheat pennies. I was getting very discouraged, thinking this would be one of those boxes that was a complete waste of my time with little to no value on the return investment of my time.

Then it happened, as I approach the halfway point I began to see two to five wheat pennies dropping in each single bankroll. By the time I was done I had a huge number of 1940s and 1950s old American wheat back pennies. I even had a few that were older than that. I ended up with 22 wheat pennies from the 1940s and 23 wheat pennies from the 1950s. Also there was one penny with so much surface erosion that I could not reasonably make out the date. Here are the images.

These fifty odd wheat penny finds all by themselves would be more than enough from one box. But I found much more. I also found a few older wheat pennies. The dates on these were a 1936-S mint mark and these 1935 and 1937 wheat pennies with no mint marks. The 1936-S is a great find with average condition coins like this one being worth about 55 cents according to the price charts I could find online. Here are the images of these three pennies.

Now this would be enough for any collector. But I found something else amazing in this bank box. I found a ton of 1963 and 1964 mint state Lincoln Memorial pennies. I looked into the history of these mint dates and I found that there are a lot of errors, especially double stamp errors on the dates. Unfortunately these are very hard to see and I don't have a coin microscope or a jewelers lens to thoroughly investigate these other pennies. I will have to wait until I get the funds to buy one, or find someone that can help me identify these.

My mind wants to tell me that these are special coins, especially when you look at the three on the mint date of the 1963 pennies. That's supposed to be where one of the well-known errors is at. Of course with a cheap camera phone there's no way to tell. These images are just coming out weird looking because these pennies are in such good condition they reflect more light. There are 18 of the 1963 mint Lincoln Memorials. Here is the image of the 1963s.

Then we have 37 mint condition or near mint condition 1964-D and 1964 no mint mark pennies. I really think these Memorial pennies look really weird. They almost have that pushed in or indented look. This makes me think that they might be double stamped, there has to be some reason somebody had so many copies of the same coin in a collection. I guess at some point I'll have to get the proper tools to learn the true value of these coins.

Sixteen More Wheat Pennies Pulled From Coin Roll Hunting

I just finished going through forty dollars worth of pennies. I haven't actually had time to go through any full boxes of pennies from the bank because I have been so stretched for free time lately. I've just been grabbing rolls here and there and I've come up with these sixteen. I just haven't had time to keep up with the blog posts, that's why there isn't as many posts this month as I usually try to have. There's also the fact that I'm not getting much search engine traffic to this blog so I'm not as enthusiastic about updating it as much. With that being said my Alexa rank still seems to be growing almost every time I check it so I must be doing something right. I'll try to do better next month and get at least ten posts up. The complete tally shows that I found eleven wheat pennies from the 1950s and four from the 40s. I also found a 1921 with no mint mark. I don't think there is anything extraordinary here though. If you see anything that stands out or looks rare please be sure to leave a comment below letting me know. Below is the scanned image of all the wheat pennies I found in this last batch of coin rolls.

Seven More Wheat Pennies From Coin Roll Hunting Today

I found three of these wheat pennies out of rolls I picked up from work and the rest I got from coin roll hunting bank rolls over the last two days. Not any really big finds other than the 1920 coin without a mint mark. I'm hoping to be able to grab a full box from the bank on my way into work today and go through it tomorrow to see what I can find. My full collection of wheat pennies is really starting to grow and I may have to sell some of them off very soon. Below is a scanned image of the latest finds.

A 1899 Indian Head Penny And Thirty-Seven Wheat Pennies I Found Coin Roll Hunting This Week

I actually got all of these pennies from a full box plus another forty dollars worth of pennies I picked up at work and the bank this week. I found the 1899 Indian head penny in the first roll I took out of a twenty-five dollar bank box. I was so excited to find it not only because it's the most valuable penny I have found but also because I was sure that box would end up having more Indian heads in it or at least a lot of wheat pennies. Unfortunately the box turned out to have only three or four wheat pennies in it and would have been the worst bank box ever if it wouldn't have been for the very first find. I have not been able to keep up on my blog posts for penny hunting because I have been concentrating on silver but I've kept everything I've found to make this one post. Below is a scan of the 1899 Indian head penny. As you can see it's in pretty good shape for a coin found in circulation.

Then we have the large number of wheat pennies that I've been hoarding. I'm separating these into three pics. The first one is the older wheat pennies I've found. There are three from the thirties and one from the twenties. We have a 1929 and then a 37,38 and 39. None of these older coins have mint marks on them but they are in great shape for their age. I wish I could find more copper pennies from these earlier dates but they are becoming harder and harder to find these days. Here is a scanned image of all four of these older wheat pennies.

Up next we have all the pennies from the forties and there are quite a lot of them. I found a total of seventeen this week and I'm very happy as there are actually more of these than the ones I found from the fifties. I won't go through all the dates here as there are just too many to list. You can see a scan below but the image is not as large as I usually post because I could not get them all to fit in the pic so I shrank it down a little bit.

And lastly we have all the pennies from the fifties. We had sixteen of these from a nice variety of dates. I'm pretty satisfied with this haul even though I had to go through a huge amount of pennies to find them all. I don't think I ever want to get this behind in my updates ever again. There was one face that was so worn down I couldn't get a date from it at all so I just placed it in this lot. You might also notice two things about this pic. One is that it's the normal larger size like my normal scans. I'm still trying to figure out why some scans come out like this and some I have to crop the image to cut out all the white area on the sides. I think I just need to group them more tightly when I lay them on the scanner. I'll try this next time I do a post. The second thing you will notice is that one of the pennies is upside down and a few others are lopsided, well I'. almost blind it seems without my glasses and I'm getting ready for work as I type this so I'm not going to do another scan. For those of you that have OCD, I'm sorry.

So our total of wheat pennies comes to 37 plus we got an Indian head that is the oldest one I have ever held in my hand. I'd say this is pretty good for going through sixty-five dollars in pennies. Looks like I might have to start hitting eBay soon to get rid of some of these.

Five Wheat Pennies I Scored Today

I could have sworn I had six wheat pennies when I started to make this post but one of them has gotten away from me. I dropped one on the floor and spent several minutes looking for it. I finally found it but then I counted and I only had five. Maybe I am losing my memory as I get older or maybe I just can't count on more than one hand. At any rate I have five wheat pennies as I fire up my printer and do my usual scan of the front face of these old coins.. Here is the image of what I have to add to my penny collection.

Nothing really spectacular today. I was only able to pick up fifteen dollars in pennies so I knew I wouldn't get much unless I got really lucky. It's just a bunch of pennies from the forties and fifties with one that is so scratched up that I can't get a date off it even after scanning it. I bet someone was trying to file off the last two digits to make it look like a rare date coin. I really hat to see old coins defaced like this. I doo have another big box of pennies to pick up tomorrow. Maybe I'll have more luck with that one.

Eighteen Wheat Pennies I Found This Week By Coin Roll Hunting

I went through about thirty dollars worth of rolled up pennies to find these wheat backs. I did this over the last few days while I was going through my regular boxes from two different banks. In total I think I went through close to three hundred dollars worth of change in the last three days. I know that sounds crazy but I got some really good finds as well as some silver. Overall I think it was a few days off work well spent. With everything I'm finding it probably won't be long before I'm able to set up my first giveaway. I'm not going to go through these and list each one but I did get a 1920 which is pretty cool. Just have a look at the pic below and tell me if you see any rare coins or errors that I missed.

Eight More Wheat Pennies I Found Coin Roll Hunting This Week

I went through over ten dollars in change this last Wednesday and didn't find a single wheat penny. I was pretty disappointed because they were all customer returned rolls and that's where I usually get my best find. I once found over five full rolls of wheat pennies this way. I went to work the very next day and picked up four more rolls when I got off. I found the 1929 wheat penny in them. Then I picked up 7 more rolls yesterday and found seven wheat pennies in those. That was a really high ratio of finds to rolls. I guess I just got lucky after finding almost nothing for two days. I'm going to try and go through some full boxes this week if I can find the time to run to my bank. I'm also going to try to work towards getting some giveaway rolls put together. Just keep following this blog for some updates in the coming weeks.

Six Wheat Pennies Of Various Dates I Pulled While Coin Roll Hunting

I went through about twenty dollars worth of pennies to find these six wheat pennies. About half of the coin rolls came from one of my banks and the other half I obtained from work. I can get plenty of change from my banks on the days I have off from work but coin roll hunting has become an obsession of mine so I tend to try and get some to take home from work at least once a month. Nothing really spectacular in these finds. There are three from the 1950s and three from the 1940s. Ne high value coins or key dates from what I can see here. I'll just add these to my collection which I think is around six dollars worth of wheat pennies right now. Tuesday I'll be going into town and I'll try to grab a lot of change to go through. Look for some new posts on this blog early next week.

A Nice Looking 1927D Wheat Penny I Found In Ten Rolls Of Coins

Yesterday one of the kids I work with brought in about five dollars worth of rolled up pennies he wanted to sell. He knows I go through rolled up change looking for wheat pennies so he offered to sell these to me. I was a bit leery about doing this at first because a lot of these younger guys I work with have started to look for old coins since they have seen me doing it. I figured if I came out with nothing on this one I could always sell them back to work since I need to have rolled up change to do this anyway. My job doesn't mind selling me change every now and then as long as I'm just swapping rolled up coins for more coins. It's a restaurant so if I bought the change with paper money I would be taking the money they need to run shop. The only coin I got out of this was a 1927D wheat penny. It's an older coin but not a significant date. It's very worn but still has nice lettering and a very clear date and mint mark. Below is a scan of both sides.

Four More Wheat Pennies I Found

I haven't had a lot of time to do any coin roll hunting lately so this is just going to be for seven dollars worth of pennies I went through the other day. This will be a short post as I'm working on a lot of blog projects lately and my time is spread pretty thin on my days off from work. I didn't get a pic of the rolls I went through as proof but I posted an image of the front of these wheat pennies below. In this hunt I found a 1941 and a 1942D as well as a 1952D and a 1958D. This was a pretty good haul for only going through fourteen rolls of coins. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time making scans of these coins. It always seems to cut off a portion of each coin no matter where I place them on scanner. Anyone else ever have this problem with your machine? I know mine is about three years old but I would think this shouldn't be an issue.

I also picked up another box of pennies that I am going through right after I write this post up. Wish me luck, I'll try to get the result up within the next two days.

The Oldest Wheat Penny I've Found So Far

I didn't have time to pick up a lot of change to work on my coin roll hunting hobby today but I did manage to get ten penny rolls from one of the seven banks I can walk to downtown. I went through all of these and only came up with one coin but it turns out to be the oldest wheat penny I have found so far, at least the oldest one since I started keeping track on this blog. It's kind of strange that I went through this many coins and only got one hit but I guess it's a good one. I'm also surprised at the condition this one is in. It looks really good, it may be that it's been cleaned by a previous owner but I still think it looks like it's in fair condition when you consider that it's almost a hundred years old. The penny is a 1918 with no mint mark and there is an image of both sides of it above. I have to work tomorrow but I will try to post images from the last full boxes of pennies and nickles I went through. Below is the image of the rolled up pennies I picked up today.

I Found Five Wheat Pennies In 40 Coin Rolls

I didn't have time to grab my box of nickles today so I grabbed twenty rolls of pennies from two different banks I usually don't get change from. This was $20 worth of loose rolls I had to go through. There are both good and bad points to going through paper penny rolls. The bad thing is that you could strike out as many of these rolls are brought in by customers that go through their change and keep any rare or old coins they find.However, the best hunts I have had were from random rolls like these. One time I got just twenty rolls from one bank and found seven rolls that were nothing but wheat pennies. Unfortunately this wasn't one of those lucky treasure finds.

Actually I only found five wheat pennies in this whole lot. That means I only got one hit for every eight rolls I went through. This is way under my average of one for every 4 penny rolls. Maybe I'm just having a dry spell or maybe my banks are starting to run low on old coins. It is getting harder to find valuable coins every day as more people are starting to sort their change for older coins they can hold on to. Below is a single scan of what I found. I wasn't going to separate these for multiple images when I only found five coins.

Today we scored a 1949 and a 1949D. We also got a 1952D, 1953D and a 1956D. They all looked pretty good except for the 1949D which had a lot of green oxidation which some people call verdigris. This wasn't bad enough to clean as I am like most collectors and don't want to clean any coin unless it is so bad I can't see the date it was minted. Overall I'm very unsatisfied with this coin roll hunt but you win some and you lose some.

Going Through 8 Penny Rolls From Work In Search Of Old Coins And Wheat Pennies

Tonight was a long tight of work and I was tired as hell after more than eight hours on the clock. I wanted to get home fast and rest but that doesn't mean I don't have enough energy to coin roll hunt. I might be wore out but it doesn't take much effort to open up a few rolls of old coins and look for some wheat pennies. I'm glad that I work at a restaurant that lets me do this. I can get tons of change from the banks in town and in fact I picked up a box of pennies today but I'm saving that for tomorrow and even with the large amount of change I go through I still find myself wanting more.

I think honestly it's becoming an obsession with me, I know how much these old coins are worth and I'm not talking about the value that some website gives them or the red book value. I'm talking about what the market is willing to pay for them. I consider the market to be eBay and i check what lots of rolled pennies and nickles go for all the time. Wheat pennies do go for a fair price, it's not a huge amount of money but it is enough to make coin roll hunting worth your time if you do it as a hobby. I plan on doing a post about selling rolled coin lots on eBay soon but this will be a huge post and I'm not willing to dedicate the large amount of time it will take to write that article just yet.

I went through these rolls as soon as I got home. I only found two wheat pennies in them but that is not bad for four dollars worth of pennies. One is from 1946 and the other is a 1947. Neither one of these wheat pennies has a mint mark. These old coins are fairly common dates and are in average condition for what I normally pull from my rolls so nothing extraordinary this time.

I still haven't found any really old coins. I'm hoping to find and Indian head penny or a flying eagle. I've only been able to pick up coins like that through buying them online but I've seen videos of people pulling them out of random rolls so I'm hopeful I will see at least one Indian head penny pop up soon. I have another full box of pennies sitting in front of me as I type up this post. I'll be going through them tonight so lets hope I find some good copper coins.