Pennies

[artfarm]

I am getting about 20% pre 1982 pennies in the rolls I am getting from my bank. Is it worth sorting through these rolls to get the copper??:shine:

[Sindgefallen]

I am getting about 20% pre 1982 pennies in the rolls I am getting from my bank. Is it worth sorting through these rolls to get the copper??:shine:

Yes it is.

[latemetal]

And for bonus points, look for error coins...:elefant:http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/m-t5HqCW2i2U_qHsvHjFh1A/140.jpg

[Milanion]

Depends upon how much you value your time. I did some for numismatic reasons and to learn, but my time is better spent increasing my income (eg: $1K in non-traditional pay last month outside of my day job and rental income).

[Pyramid]

FWIW, if anyone here is interested in acquiring copper cents I have plenty available at a negotiable price that would be fair and agreeable to both parties...PM me if interested.

20% is low for my area, but I stopped hoarding them quite awhile ago. Good luck with whatever you decide artfarm.

[birddog]

Do you have kids or grandkids?

My 9 year old LOVES to sort pennies.... :-) He knows he can keep the newer ones to save for bible camp in the summer. No, it isn't just because he is a good kid. They have a huge contest to see which grade can bring in the most pennies (by weight). Last summer he brought about 30 pounds... lol.....

I bought a few boxes of rolls and we hit about 30% copper, averaging 1 or so wheat per roll.

[TimoneX]

Copper penny sorters cost next to nothing and are very accurate. You can go through a box of pennies in an hour or two without even paying much attention. Then you can return the zinc to the bank for more pennies.

[budfox]

I still get quite a few wheats. That always makes my day:bear_original:

[namwalker]

I sort late at night while watching the news and some late night tv. I'm averaging around 25% in copper. The hardest thing is putting the coins into penny wrappers. The banks around here will not accept unrolled coins and do not have a coin counter for their customers. The counters at the grocery store is way to expensive to use. So I purchase wrappers on line to get a better price for bulk wrapping.

[charlie1023]

I sort late at night while watching the news and some late night tv. I'm averaging around 25% in copper. The hardest thing is putting the coins into penny wrappers. The banks around here will not accept unrolled coins and do not have a coin counter for their customers. The counters at the grocery store is way to expensive to use. So I purchase wrappers on line to get a better price for bulk wrapping.

Ditto for me as well, I like to sort at night, sort of relaxes me as I always am on the lookout for a rarity. With all of the stuff I normally have to do around the house, I just use the coinstar machines to exchange the pennies for gift cards at Lowes which cost you nothing and work like cash, that way no rolling, returning to the bank etc. use the pennies per se to buy stuff at Lowes that I would normally be spending anyway.

[TylerDurden]

Ditto for me as well, I like to sort at night, sort of relaxes me as I always am on the lookout for a rarity. With all of the stuff I normally have to do around the house, I just use the coinstar machines to exchange the pennies for gift cards at Lowes which cost you nothing and work like cash, that way no rolling, returning to the bank etc. use the pennies per se to buy stuff at Lowes that I would normally be spending anyway.

I use coinstar as well. There's always something on Amazon that I need or want so it works out great. If I had to roll all the zinc pennies I went through in order to return them I probably wouldn't sort at all.

[cpthnsolo]

Depends upon how much you value your time. I did some for numismatic reasons and to learn, but my time is better spent increasing my income (eg: $1K in non-traditional pay last month outside of my day job and rental income).

What he said... I can make more money using my job skills on the side, or even picking up scrap metal on the side of the road, so I don't sort pennies anymore. I would like to increase my penny hoard at some point, but I'm already sitting on several boxes that I haven't sorted and I just don't have the interest in fooling with it any more. ...That's why I switched to nickels ;).

[PhucilliJerry]

I was averaging 30% a few months back but have been on dimes, nickels and halves instead recently. Still have 6 boxes of pennies to be sorted in the closet. Bring mine back to Penny Arcade at TD bank, free if you have an account, 6% otherwise.
A lot of Canadian pennies up here too. I'll do some pennies when I hit a long skunk streak on silver to get the spirits back up with some results.
My goal is to fill a 5 gallon bucket, then I'll probably decide to fill another.......