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I cracked open a new box of pennies on Sat night - and there is nothing - I mean nothing in it
so far (14 rolls examined) except zincs.

Part of me wants to pitch it in the counter w/o going further, but there is a nagging voice in the
back of my head saying - keep going, you never know....

JD

you picked up someone's dump. It happens.

if you have a scale, weigh 5 rolls of zinc to find out how much they weigh.

then compare other sets of rolls. saves time.
i ran into the same thing a few months ago, and only went thru a few rolls.
i also weigh each box before i sort. if the box of $25 is close to 14 lbs and only 1 or 2 oz, i got zincs

Win some,
Lose some.

beauanderos

I know this box is someones dump - but it seems "crazy" - for lack of a better word,
that I've picked rolls from all over the box - front/back/center and I come up dry - no
copper.

You would think that in that many rolls, and I went thru 6 more last night for shnits and giggles,
that there would be a copper cent or two or ten mixed in. Law of averages and all that stuff...

SpacemanX - thanks for the tip.

Any zinc 82's? Or have all 82's ben removed?

This was a "New box", or by new you mean unopened from the bank? Just so I understand it correctly, I'm under the impression that these are machine wrapped, mixed date cents, straight from Loomis, Brinks, or NF String?

If that is the case, I would think that you picked up a dump of sorts. The coin processing company either got in a large amount of zincs all at once, or they are sorting themselves
I think there is some older thread on here about the super sorter you can look up, quite an interesting read.

Where are you located? If you got 100% zincs then the coins were processed at the armored car service. I doubt that someone's dumps would cause you to get 100% zincs.

Hobofinds:

Finding a few zinc '82s - 1 every 2nd-3rd roll.

Can you explain why you asked about the removal of all '82s?

Loosechange:

I am located in the mid-west. The boxes are NF String - they often have writing on them - indicating transfers from branch A to branch B, etc. New box to me, but contains mixed age coins. All machine wrapped. I know this box has the branch # written on it, but can't recall what else
is written on the box (if anything).

Slickeast:

Went thru 4-5 more rolls last night. Found 2 coppers - a decent 1964, and a badly chewed up 197x in
seperate rolls.


I have a pretty good relationship w/ the tellers at the branch where I get my pennys. Going
to ask them some questions the next time I am in there about how they are ordered, moved, etc.

JD

Some hand sorters remove all 82's and just keep them seperate to check later. And now that you have found "some" copper you should check the rest! One day when I have enough It would be fun to release a whole box of zinc 82's. I am keeping my copper 82's seperate from the rest of the coppers as it may be easier to sell one day...

Interesting. My NF String boxes usually only have a 4 digit number on the back/bottom of the box. I don't personally know if that correlates to the individual branch or just a NF String "Batch Number". I've always assumed the latter.

Okay, so mixed age coins in SEALED boxes, mostly Zinc (99.9%), all machine wrapped. I'm with Slick, thinking the armored car delivery service is sorting out the copper. I'm still pretty suspicious of one of my Credit Unions coin processing service and I think they do this directly at their counters.....but that's just a theory I had Good Read - See Here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=23033

FWIW - Some of the banks I deal with won't give up their coins easily, unless I bring in my own coins for trade. On several occasions I have brought in full boxes of rolled Zinc (In a String Box, with recycled string wrappers) taped shut that they will swap out for 50 rolls. If I want coins from that bank, I'll carefully unload one end of a string roll, push out the coins and replace with 50 zincs. This makes the coin look like a shotgun roll, keeping a "factory" edge still showing on one end. If you load up a box with the "factory" roll ends showing in the peek-a-boo holes, if I re-glued it, very few people would even notice that it was opened before. Most tellers will open a box to check, but they know that I never short the rolls, so it's all good. (I check by weight each roll to ensure I haven't under filled the rolls) This is VERY time consuming so I don't do it often, but they are more than happy to take them.

I'm glad that I can get bags directly off the lobby machines. I am also grateful that I can dump at another location directly into the lobby machine. I have never got a bag of zincs. All that means is no one is dumping zincs where I buy my bags.

If i had to hand sort and roll zincs I would never sort.

slickeast wrote:I'm glad that I can get bags directly off the lobby machines. I am also grateful that I can dump at another location directly into the lobby machine. I have never got a bag of zincs. All that means is no one is dumping zincs where I buy my bags.

If i had to hand sort and roll zincs I would never sort.

Wishing I could get bags, but definitely not at my dump banks. Un/Fortuntly they are not allowed to sell or trade bags directly from the machine. Bank Policy at all branches. The counters are pretty good in terms of accuracy and speed, but I wouldn't know what its like to get a bag from them Every time I ask the response is "They come off the machine and go straight to the feds". All counter junk goes in the trash

I'll say it too: If I had to hand sort and hand roll zincs I would never sort. Before I started doing this, I made sure I had a source for dumps. Hand sorting is great starting out, but re-rolling is for the birds. I've only re-rolled by hand about 5/6 boxes of zinc as that was only for one bank in particular, the remainder of what I sort goes straight into the machine.

Hobofinds:

Recently began to keep copper '82s seperate from the other copper - something someone said here on RC about doing it
clicked and made sense - sadly - I have a inventory of mixed copper which will need to be 'dealt' with at some point in time.

LooseChange:

The credit union I use as a dump bank shoots all the coins from their machine straight to the area Fed branch. They do not touch them.

The bank I purchase my pennies at is a regional commerical bank, with 12 +/- branches. I can get a box there when ever I want, they
always have a box or two on the shelf. Based on past experience (writing on the boxes as prev. indicated), I know that boxes move from
branch to branch, but the current box may have been an exception - will have to try to find out when I see the tellers again.
I try to not dump at this bank (pennies) lest I 'contaminate' it w/ zincs....

I've never asked about getting a bag off their machine - plus a box is easier to handle (more compact). I know that the credit
union will not do so - I asked.

JD

LooseChange wrote:Interesting. My NF String boxes usually only have a 4 digit number on the back/bottom of the box. I don't personally know if that correlates to the individual branch or just a NF String "Batch Number". I've always assumed the latter.

It's a QC inspector ID.

LooseChange wrote:Wishing I could get bags, but definitely not at my dump banks. Un/Fortuntly they are not allowed to sell or trade bags directly from the machine. Bank Policy at all branches. The counters are pretty good in terms of accuracy and speed, but I wouldn't know what its like to get a bag from them Every time I ask the response is "They come off the machine and go straight to the feds".

Don't ask to buy the bags off their machine.
Talk to the teller who orders the coin and ask if they can order bags for you.
It took me years to figure that out.
My bags come from all over the Chicago area, haven't been skunked yet.

Sounds like a rough bag, we have all been through a box or two that were less than stellar. Although, this sounds like a pretty bad box. On the up side, the next one is bound to be better. Good luck and keep up the hunt.

Pic of the haul.....



.0032% copper

JD

I have not sorted cents in about 2 years, what are the average percentages looking like these days?

Had a nice chat w/ one of the bank tellers this morning. They (the "bank") have a "central ordering facility" aka "The North Office"
which does the ordering and handling of all coins for all of the offices. The pennys I get from them can come from one of
three sources: 1) the Fed 2) a intra branch transfer 3) the branch itself

Each branch has it's own counting machine, and can stuff rolls. Branch stuffed rolls usually have folded ends or rolled ended that
aren't quite "perfect". If they (a branch) have to much coinage on hand (in excess of their allotment), it gets sent back to the
"central facility" - which can then ship it to another branch.

This particular box, since it had DT 318 written on it (the branch's number) and nothing else, was likely direct from the the Fed,
as a intra-branch transfer would have a sending & recieving branch name on it (which most of the boxes I have gotten do have,
including the one I got this morning).

Some one remind me to take the lady's donuts the next time I go there for putting up w/ me....

JD