Although the new CRHer might think that since it’s the smallest denomination cents are the easiest place to start hunting, I would steer the new hobbiest towards one of the other denominations. Cents are not for the faint hearted! I’ll explain more later in the article. Only the composition hunters can approach cents without trepidation.
That said, Roll Hunting cents can be a fun and rewarding hobby. There are 3 main types of cents that you’re likely to run across. Most common are the cents composed of Zinc. Starting mid way through 1982, the mint changed planchets and went from a primarily copper coin to a primarily zinc coin. Roughly 85% of the cents you search through will be zinc planchets. The remaining 15% of coins will be composed primarily of copper memorial cents.
But that’s not all you’ll run across. In every box of cents you’ll find a small scattering of Wheat cents. These were minted from 1909 to 1958. The vast majority of the wheat cents you’ll find will be dated from the 40’s and 50’s. You will occasionally run across a coin a coin that’s a little older, but it’s a fairly uncommon occourence. Very, very rarely you will stumble across an Indian Head cent. I’ve been roll hunting for years and have found exactly 1. Some of my other CRH friends who search through many more boxes than I, have never found one. They are out there, but there’s a good chance you’ll never see one.
Depending upon the area of the country that you buy your boxes you might have farily high concentrations of foreign coins. These foreign coins will primarily be Canadian but you will also find coins from Mexico, the Bahamas, and various other countries. Percentages on foreign coins vary widely.
If you’d like to read a little bit of history on the Lincoln cent I would suggest reading the Coin Resource article on them (new window).
Composition Hunters – Hunting Copper is pretty easy with Lincolns. As I write this in the fall of 2008 the copper value in pre 82 Lincolns is roughly 3 cents (edit: still about the same in 2012). Not a whole lot by themselves, but there’s a bunch of them out there. Most boxes will average somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-18% copper. That comes out to roughly 400 copper cents per box, which translates to about $12 in copper to save and $21 in Zincolns (Zinc planchett Lincoln cents) can be returned to the bank.
Variety Hunters -Due to the shear volume of cents minted each year, there are literally hundreds of varieties to be hunted. I would highly recommend looking at the Copper Coins website (new window) for information on Lincoln Cent varieties. Of all the variety websites I mention on this site, Copper Coins does the absolute best job of detailing a specific denomination.
Set Hunters – The Lincoln Memorial set may be the second easiest set to put together. There are no real keys and there really aren’t any that are scarce. To make the job a little more challenging you might consider putting together a set which is in Extremely Fine or better condition.
If you want to undertake a considerably harder challenge, I would suggest trying to put together a complete set from 1941 on. This is going to be rough as 3 coins are going to be next to impossible to pull from circulation. During World War 2 the planchet was changed to steel as copper was needed in the war effort. These Steel Cents are next to impossible to find. I’ve never found one.
Before putting a Lincoln set together I would recommend selecting one of the following 2 options. Either purchase the 2 Harris Coin Folders for Memorial cents; Lincoln Memorial Folder 1959-1998 and Lincoln Memorial Cent 1999-2008 as well as picking up some 2×2’s for the Wheat cents you’ll stumble across. Or purchase the #2 and #3 Harris Folders for Lincoln Cents which will start you off at 1941 and run through 2000 (I’d also pick up a few 2×2’s for those extra Wheat Cents that you pull.
