Odds of a Steel Penny sorting?

[Henchman]

Found my 2nd Indian Head tonight, 1901 in very good condition. I still have not found a 43 Steel. Wondering what the odds are finding them in the wild. I rather have more Indians of course just curious.

Side note, I got 5 steel from a Ocean's First bank one day after a dump. The nice teller thought my daughter would think they were cool after I told her we sort pennies. A collection must have been brought in but that was all she had.

Someone got some odds on a steely wild find?

Cheers,
Henchman

[henrysmedford]

Most coin counters have a magnet that gets the steel ones. My guess is the the teller who gave the steel ones got them off the magnet.

[NotABigDeal]

I still run across one every once and a while in my bags. I have magnets on my Ryedale chutes to catch them and any other steel coins.

Deal

[68Camaro]

I find steelies all the time. One or two a month, ususally. Usually via the dump magnet. Have yet to find an indian (in this century), though, so you've got two on me there.

[Dave]

I to find the steels ones, last month I found 48 of them in a $10 CWR box. In 2 years I have found 2 rolls of steelies and 4 IH's.

[1saved3.11earned]

First Steel wheat I ever found was at the grocery store, on the ground.

[ed_vantage17]

Got one in a roll a few months back.

[Hawkeye]

I've been hand sorting for a year or two, and have found 2 Indians but no steelies yet.

[TwoAndAHalfCents]

I don't expect that I will ever find a steel penny in a box of machine rolled coins. But I did find one the day in some CWRs.

[ScottyTX]

1 stealie for me, 1 1909 VDB, 1 Indian head cent guess that makes them just about as rare eh..... Not really a clue I would think they would run pretty close to the feathered man's rarity.

Scotty

[henrysmedford]

1 stealie for me, 1 1909 VDB, 1 Indian head cent guess that makes them just about as rare eh..... Not really a clue I would think they would run pretty close to the feathered man's rarity.

Scotty

He is a she. The Indian Head cent is lady Liberty wearing a feather head dress of an Amerindian see--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Head_cent

[hirbonzig]

I found a 1943 steel cent about 4 years ago in a box, and no steel since then.

[Know Common Cents]

Steel cents? BAH! I know they served a useful purpose in WWII and think they look superb in Unc to high mint state condition. The ones I've encountered in the wild are pretty much reduced to heavily rusted disks. It's been almost 70 years since the were minted. That begs the questions:

Why haven't they been previously snagged by a magnet in the bank or Fed Reserve sorting process?

How'd they get so damn rusty? That didn't happen overnight.

If the rusty ones were plentiful, I'd gather as many as I could and ship them off to one of the places that reprocesses them into sparkling gems. I think the rusty rolls are bought at about $3 each. Nicely circulated ones are several times that, I believe.

Since they don't exist in large numbers, I usually throw the bad ones away. I know. I know. I'm not in the practice of actually throwing my money away, but do make an exception for the really crusty ones. Couple months ago, I tried leaving a couple of the bad ones in the "Need-a-Penny, Leave-a-Penny" plastic tray at a gas station and the wingnut clerk there yelled at me for leaving rusty "washers" there. I tried a 15 second explanation, but immediately realized the concept of a steel cent went way beyond Goober's thought processes. I grabbed them out of the tray and threw them into the trash on my way out the door. Oh, the humanity!!!

They really were plentiful in the late 1960s. Funny. My Dad, who served in the war, always called them "white pennies." Never understood that, but maybe others have heard them referred to in that way.

[Coppercrazy]

Just found my first "wild" steel cent in a reject tray of a coinstar machine.

[BOHICA]

I received one in change about a month ago.