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After over $900 FV hand-sorted, I found my first Indian Head cent, so badly worn I couldn't make out the date. In the same roll, I found my first steel cent yet. Had to soak it in some lemon juice before I realized what it was. Wish I had a good camera so I could post pictures. Might try to scan them one day.

I found it funny I found that IH when I did. At the time I was thinking about how I was nearing $1000 fv and wondering if I'd ever, ever find one in circulation.

Congrats on the find. You know what they say, when it rains it pours. Were those CWR's??

yep, great finds, many have sorted way more than you and no IH yet....I found my first IH on my tenth box....never did find any steel pennies in boxes hand sorting but I have now from the bags I get. Keep it up and soon you will be posting $1000 fv Cu.

Here's my first IHP....they sure can hide when they're that old....




and my second IHP....shame it's a tough date if it's in good condition....




hags

Congratulations!

..what does soaking in lemon juice do?

@ scrapper2010: The roll with the IH & the steelie were machine-wrapped. @Chaboo: I use lemon juice or Coca Cola as a mild acid on some unreadable dates (usually memorial cents). It really does get rid of some gunk, but probably lowers numismatic value.

I had 6 boxes from this past week. One box was CWR, and had around 50% copper in it, but surprisingly few wheats. Another of the machine-wrapped boxes had over 50 wheats, but a low copper percentage (around 15%). The IH & steel I found in a 3rd box, also of machine-wrapped coins. Copper was good on it, but maybe about 10 other wheats in the box.

I like to think with machine-wrapped boxes like that one with the 50+ wheats, that there is a large pool of coins put in to be wrapped and maybe someone turned in a lump of 50 cents of solid wheats that got dispersed into the pool.

I had an incident when I was 14 at a McDonalds in a super Walmart...got 3 wheats in change. Went back and got the rest of pennies in drawer. I still have all those coins...it was around 10 or 12 wheats , many pre 1939, and 1 1907 IH cent in good condition.

Congratulations on finding an Indian and a steel penny both in the same roll from a bank box. My one Indian, one George V, and two 1909 VDB cents have all been found in bank boxes. Haven't found any of those goodies in CWRs. But I did get my one and only steel penny from a CWR. I figured that would be the only way to find one assuming the machines used for sorting and rolling the coins in the bank boxes weed out any steel coins along the way.