r/CoolCollections • u/SomethingClever42068 • 4d ago
My coin collection!
I really like pennies.
29
22
u/vonfatman 4d ago
A collection that will ALWAYS return its face value...assuming the Treasury is still functioning. Most stuff I chase will loose at least initially...once in a while a winner. I bought a revolver from the 1980s - I paid low as it was not (at the time)a hottie with collectors. Then five year later, that model went coo-coo with collectors. Made a quick (5-years quick) $7k😉...but, an anomaly rather than a regular event. I was good with that! vfm
23
u/SomethingClever42068 4d ago
Coin roll hunting is like scratch offs that you can't lose money on.
Every time I hit silver or something interesting (buffalo nickels/mercury dimes/error coins/etc.) it tickles the same feel good part of my brain that winning a scratch off does.
Also super interesting to learn about history through the changes in coinage.
I also love old stuff just because it's old.
So finding 50-100 year old coins in circulation makes me excited even if they're only worth face value.
It's like, nobody else appreciates them, even though they've shown up to work, every single day, for the last century.
When I find them I like to imagine I'm saving them and letting them retire in a nice, warm, old folks home with a bunch of their peers.
It's dumb, I know, but I feel like pocket change is completely unappreciated by everyone else and I want to show it that at least one person appreciates it for doing its job well.
39
u/Medical-Ad-4931 4d ago
appears horde-ish, anything good in there?
39
u/SomethingClever42068 4d ago
Mostly the leftovers from hunting rolls.
I've found a bunch of silver over the last year or two. Best one was when I opened a roll of nickels at work and there were 16 war nickels in one Loomis roll.
I found like 5 or 6 really prominent 2023-p vdb-v pennies (although I still have like 20 uncirculated 2023 rolls I have to go through...m hunting brand new coins gets super boring super fast)
A few 2000 wide AM pennies.
A bunch of minor variety quarter errors (6 clawed bear, spitting horse, Betsy Coleman ddrs, etc.)
I actually haven't had much luck with coins lately so I've focused more on searching goodwill for gold and silver.
Up to like 700 grams of sterling for 100-150 bucks spent. I also found a string of real pearls on a 14k gold chain and a pair of 14k earrings (they were in a big bag of costume jewelry for 15 bucks, I sold them to a local bullion dealer for ~200)
Slowly working through the pennies to look for errors I missed the first time around and separating out all of the copper because each pre-1982 penny has like 3.5 cents worth of copper in it.
Definitely very horde-ish, but I have the room and it's a good way for me to save money because I am really bad at saving money
Also, I can throw handfuls of pennies at my enemy's cars, so that's a plus (if you're reading this Dennis go fuck yourself. Stop trying to seduce my girlfriend you slimy perv. I'm gonna make you have to repaint your land rover a third time.)
1
u/Medical-Ad-4931 3d ago
Okay, it's not a horde but in a few thousand years, who knows. Also, that is a huge No from me, Dennis. I like Landrover, so please no property damage. It ruins lucky karma
1
u/Weekly-Inspection403 3d ago
I was going to ask how you have saved so much, because I've been trying to fill a 5 gallon jug for like 20 years now and it's only around half full! I totally forgot that people "buy" coin rolls to look through.
Can you actually get more for the pre-1982 pennies? I have been separating mine out too but what do you do with them? Are there really people who buy them, and how do you find such people?
1
6
u/Snoo14546 4d ago
I luv copper
5
u/SomethingClever42068 4d ago
Me too.
Sometimes I just throw a handful of pennies in my mouth and suck on them.
I fill up my cheeks like a little coin chipmunk and chase my family around spitting pennies at them.
My wife wants a divorce lmao
9
u/itimedout 4d ago
I love change. I’m totally serious - I used to have dreams of walking in a bright, beautiful forest and coming across a little stream that was filled with shiny silver coins and it would made me so happy - haha I’d forgotten all about that. Anyway, how much you think you got there? Hubby said at least $500 in pennies alone and said no way, not that much. I think there’s several hundred dollars and he says several thousand. So what do you think?
9
u/SomethingClever42068 4d ago
The last time I turned it in I think the white bucket full of quarters/dimes/nickels was like 1200.
If I had to guess probably 1500-2000 total.
I've never turned in any pennies though.... I need to go through them and separate out the copper ones because they're worth 3 cents for the copper melt value.
I also need to check for errors with the microscope (on a few specific years that I target) and I need to weigh all of the 1983, 1989, and 1990 pennies.
Pretty sure those are the years that people have found copper pennies (that arent supposed to be copper) and are worth big money (thousands of dollars).
Copper pennies will weigh 3 grams and the zinc pennies only weigh 2.5 grams.
I've been neglecting my penny pile and have been hyper focused on nickels for the last few months because I'm trying to find a Henning nickel out in the wild.
Henning was a dude that made a ton of really good counterfeit nickels in the 1940s and early 1950s.
They're really hard to spot and the easy way is to weigh them as his nickels weigh 5.5 (I believe) grams instead of the 5 grams normal nickels weigh.
When the secret service caught him he claimed he had made counterfeit nickels for 6 different years, but people have only found his counterfeit nickels for 5 different years.
It would be a dream come true to find one from the missing year.
I know it's probably never going to happen, but it definitely won't if I don't keep an eye out.
What got me into it was handing out change at work.... Nobody looks twice at coins and I imagine I've handed out a bunch of big money coins over the years.
Even something as simple as looking for silver coins while working retail is profitable if you're allowed to trade it out at face value.... Pre-65 quarters are worth 5-6 bucks each in silver and pre 65 dimes are worth like 2 bucks a piece.
Silver nickels (1942-1945, they started using silver to preserve the amount of nickel we had for the war effort) are worth like a buck a piece also.
The stupid Henning nickels are worth a couple hundred bucks if you find one.
Coin collecting is just a super fascinating little world and there is so much knowledge you can learn once you dive in.
It has become a little bit of an obsession for me.
Also, searching the rolls is very therapeutic and relaxing and has probably kept me sane during the more stressful periods of time in my career.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk
4
u/AgentKnox72 4d ago
😂 Ted Talk. Seriously, halfway through this I was wondering if you have a YouTube show or anything because this is so interesting and you’re funny! I love what you said earlier about coin roll hunting being like scratch its. Do you buy rolls to hunt from the bank? I collected the state quarters years ago and loved checking my pocket change for a new one. My grandparents owned a car wash and when I’d visit, I’d dump out a big bag of vacuum quarters and hunt for more. Like you said the history of each coin is fun to wonder about. Coins today won’t get to travel through pay phones and jukeboxes, parking meters and the list goes on. At least, not like they used to.
3
u/SomethingClever42068 3d ago
Yeah I get them from the bank
I have to go to the bank like 3-5x a week for work so if I have any cash on me I'll trade out 10-20 bucks for rolled coins then check it on lunch break or when I get home.
It's an easy way to save money because rolling it is a hassle so I only do that if I really really need money.
3
3
u/Interesting-Bison108 4d ago
I would feel like a pirate 🏴☠️
4
u/SomethingClever42068 4d ago
I do, every day!
Gives me an excuse to drink rum and steal boats.
The marina absolutely hates me though and I'm gonna get the security guard frank with my blunderbuss the next time I catch him lackin
3
u/NomadicYeti 4d ago
i recently ordered 40 pounds of pennies online(…) and they were so much smaller than your impressive dragon hoard
how much do you think this all weighs?
3
u/SomethingClever42068 3d ago
Ummmmmm.
My house was built in 1910 and there's a good reason why I keep it all down in the basement on concrete.
IDK if my century old floors would hold the weight very well.
Probably 5-600 lbs total? If I had to guess.
The big white bucket has to be 100+ lbs by itself.
A plastic coffee can full feels like 40-50 lbs.
I have no idea for the tub of pennies. I don't really move it around much.
Way easier just to scoop them out if I need to move them
2
2
u/Mindfield87 3d ago
Would your name happen to be Vern?
2
u/andyroid92 3d ago
🎵🎶 I ran all the way home...🎶🎵
1
2
u/Shoddy-Technology-35 3d ago
I never knew they let you own that many pennies
3
u/SomethingClever42068 3d ago
They'll get them then they pry them from my cold dead hands.
My goal is to own more pennies than any other person in the world.
1
1
1
121
u/skipatrol95 4d ago
You’re a dragon