Got 10 Machine Wrapped Rolls of 1979P

[smallchange]

Very weird. I went to my bank to deposit a few checks, and like usual I bought $5 of pennies. I do not like boxes of pennies and have found just buying 10 rolls at a time when at the bank for other matters works just fine for me as I am not big time & I get pretty good results.

The rolls looked different to me. Kind of old style or something (two different types), but machine wrapped.

I opened the first one and saw the edges of the pennies and thought, oh well, rolls of zinc, as they were all shiny.

Then looked at one, and it was a 1979. Then looked at the others, all 1979. They were NOT BU tho, but close to it, with enough small dirt or other very slight indications that these were for sure not BU rolls, but all shiny and semi new. Just really weird. Then opened the next roll, same thing. Then looked at the other rolls without opening them, looking at the penny on the edge of the roll which was showing. 6 of the 8 remaining rolls were not tails/tails so I could read the date, all 1979. I did not open the 8 remaining rolls yet, but I weighed the rolls and they are almost for sure all copper or at least very close to it, so I think they are all 1979P rolls.

Just weird to me. I could understand that somehow I could get BU 1979 rolls, but not straight 1979 rolls in AU condition. Anyone have any idea on what is going on here?

[dp2007]

They get into circulation the same way silver & other old coins do. Someone dies and the heirs don't know or care about other than face value, they get stolen and cashed in for bills or the owner gets tired of holding & or hard up for cash and takes them to the bank.
Another less likely way would be for the bank to clean out the vault and come across some really old stuff and decide to get it out of the vault.
I found 46 rolls similar to what you described about 6 months ago.