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I'm sure it sounds nuts, but a part of me truly enjoys reintroducing old/worn change back into circulation. Just yesterday I found a dime that was pretty weathered, it was out by a trash can for God knows how long. This morning, it went toward the payment for my breakfast bagel

Anyone else enjoy reviving the life of old MIA change?

Yes!

Three years ago I found over 30 terribly corroded pennies in a Coinstar. Some were barely recognizable as coins and I wondered what to do with them. The answer was so easy - I added one to each roll of pennies that I gradually accumulated over the years. Today I'm bringing the last ones to the bank. Vendors might balk at accepting these, but hidden in rolls, these crusty zincolns get a new life.

Back when I was doing lots more sorting; I would get dimes in my penny rolls. I kept them all and eventually had an entire roll of dimes. Some of those dimes were dark and it was apparent why they were mistaken for cents. I know it’s not much but it sure was a ‘thrill’ to spend that roll of dimes knowing that it only cost me 50 cents

Yes I do...

I like to spend dateless buffalo nickels,nasty IHC’s and holed coins that I find. I like to think that someone will find them and spark an interest in coin collecting.

I love the fact that there are more of you out there!

I love how "civilians" don't regard these coins as money, simply because they are worn and dirty.

I recently found a quarter under bleachers at a baseball field that was badly worn, I wasted no time using that sucker at a self checkout!

hirbonzig wrote:I like to spend dateless buffalo nickels,nasty IHC’s and holed coins that I find. I like to think that someone will find them and spark an interest in coin collecting.

Very nice touch!

What is the deal with holes in coins anyway? Bored people?

Jewelry? I have kept some holed halves and put them on my keychain for car keys. Never broke that way.

I found a 1970 nickel on Saturday that looks like it's been out in the elements for quite some time. It will be getting used in a self-checkout sometime this week.

All the copper goes into my back pocket. Once in a great while I find a war nickel or silver dime.

thecrazyone wrote:What is the deal with holes in coins anyway? Bored people?

In the mid-1800's or so, I've read and heard that people would wear a holed coin (usually dime, quarter or half) around their neck as a very small way of prepping. If they found that they had no money and were hungry, they could turn in what was around their neck for one last meal.

I'm working (very slowly I might add) on a holed type set, which is actually a pretty cool thing. I've seen a few of them before and they are quite beautiful. For my holed type coins, I want either a key date (for instance, I have a holed 1864 "L" on ribbon Indian Head cent in roughly XF that is a super sharp strike and looks really nice) or a coin that is in nicer condition (say, XF or above). A sample of a nicer holed coin in the set is a beautiful Barber half in AU+++ condition from the 1890's that is an "S" mint. Pretty sure it is either and 1894-S or 1895-S. The coins are in storage at a remote site.

I won't accept just any holed coin for my set. It has to have a hole that isn't a jagged mess or overly huge and I prefer it to be near the 12 o'clock position without having the hole go through the head of the person on the coin (if the head is fairly small- like on the seated Liberty coins). Also, you don't want to have the hole be in the position where the mint mark is- then you might not know where the coin was produced.

Holed coins can often be bought for big discounts versus the retail value of the same dates without holes. I would guess that, generally, you can buy a coin that would cost $100 for $10 to $40 if it is holed. Look at some of those that have sold on eBay and you will get a better feel for pricing.

These sets, when complete can easily be worth several thousand dollars, so you can imagine there are some pretty nice coins in there. One other thing, holed coins from the last 50 years or so are not very easy to find, but that doesn't mean that they are worth much either. So I wouldn't fall for that trap. In other words, if someone wants to sell you a 1972 Lincoln cent with a hole for $5, I'd tell them where they can put their coin (and it wouldn't be in my collection!).

By the way, two coin dealers I know well are also both working on holed type sets. One showed his set to me and I was drooling as I looked at it. So those coins now have both holes and saliva!

I'm also gonna repost this as a new thread with a different title to give it the attention it deserves.

I got to relive this yet again today: I took a roll of pennies that I'd rolled up through the year from various sources like car washes, parking lots, etc., to Wal-Mart today. I used it while paying for dog food. I said to the lady "I'm guessing you could use these?" She just took them from my hand, cracked the roll on her drawer like it had just come from the bank, and moved forward. I wanted to yell FLY! BE FREE!! It's the little things.

Don't know why this provides such a rewarding feeling, but it does.

During a mass collection inventory earlier this year (lockdown was put to good use) I found half a roll of sad state zincolns. I must have accumulated these way back when thinking they were oddities, not realizing they're actually representatative of typical zincoln deterioration due to subpar composition.

Now I'm feeding them one at a time into pocket change rolls that I bring to the bank, just like I did with a batch of 30+ I found a few years back. 7 left to go, and they're the worst of the bunch, but they'll live on in circulation a bit longer. I also reintroduce chewed up or otherwise rejected coinage rescued from Coinstars. So far no complaints from my bank.

just spent 4 fire damaged clad 1/2s at the gas station... the teller snatched them right up... guess they are getting added to his collection.

I love that you guys get me on this!! Tonight at the local Safeway, I unloaded another $2.50 in "crusty coins"into the self checkout. .50 in pennies, and $2 in nickels and dimes. One penny kept fighting, but finally succumbed to the machine. Some of the nickels were coins I'd found on the street, and looked like they'd been drug a mile or 2 under a trash truck, but still very useable!!

There was also a penny sitting on the top of the machine, lol. People are such morons.

Returned another .20 in crusty pennies back into circulation yesterday via Wal-Mart self checkout

AHA, I have some fire damage clad that will make its way to Winco tonight, thank you!

One facet of this that feels practically humanitarian is when I get coins that are fused together with gunk.

Step 1: separate them (carefully!) with a razor blade.

Step 2: alcohol wipes to clean them off. This part reminds me of those workers who clean birds and other wildlife after oil spills.

Step 3: Return to circulation!

Yikes.

Found this abandoned on a Coinstar ledge, it's probably the saddest example of a zincoln I've seen. At 1.6 grams, almost half its weight is gone but despite this severe deterioration it'll be put into a roll and brought to the bank.

coindood wrote:

Yikes.

Found this abandoned on a Coinstar ledge, it's probably the saddest example of a zincoln I've seen. At 1.6 grams, almost half its weight is gone but despite this severe deterioration it'll be put into a roll and brought to the bank.

Wow, you're more daring than me!! I will use one that's chipped on the edge, but man that thing is definitely shot!!

Yesterday I reintroduced .43 into the national cashflow. 13 crusty zincolns, a nickel, and a quarter that had approximately 1/8" of its edge bent upward, almost spoonlike.

The coins were used at Home Depot's self checkout. The machine accepted every coin but the bent quarter. I advised the lady watching the machines, and she took the quarter to another register, and brought me back 5 nickels to finish out my transaction.

Some are tougher than others. I seriously doubt I could sneak any of these into rolls or pass them off as legit change.

Good on you getting that bent quarter and the rest back out there.

On your pic, I bet the nickel, dime and shield cent in the upper right would work. For the cent on the right with something stuck to it, a razor blade would clean it up enough that it would probably go through.

The other pennies at the top center I would flatten carefully with a hammer, and include them in a roll. The one on the left appears to be a copper though, so you may want to keep that one!

Dropped another $1.50 in change at HD today. Needed spray paint All old pennies and dimes.