Realcent.org

This Wednesday, I had a call from my bank and one of the tellers left a message for me to call her as soon as I could. I returned the call, and she told me someone had brought in a bunch of "old looking rolls". She had opened one and there were 17 wheats inside. I usually go to the bank on Friday evenings, so she said she would put away the rest of the rolls until I came in to pick them up. I got them on Friday and there was $15.50 face, plus she gave me the 17 wheats from the roll she had opened. I started going thru the rolls and it soon became apparent that they had been put away between 1967 and 1972! The coins had that vaguely powdery/gritty feel that coins that spend a long time in paper rolls tend to get. Except for a single 1943-P steel, the rolls were solid copper, with 35.6% of the coins being wheat cents--558 wheats out of a total of 1567 coins! Having OCD, I sorted the coins by date and mintmark and came up with the following:

1911, 1913, 1934 (2), 1936 (2), 1937 (2), 1938, 1939, 1940 (19), 1941 (30), 1941-D, 1942 (14), 1942-D, 1943, 1944 (58), 1944-D (6), 1944-S (2), 1945 (40), 1946 (44), 1946-D (4), 1947 (7), 1947-D, 1948 (14), 1948-D, 1949 (6), 1950 (11), 1950-D (7), 1951 (11), 1951-D (20), 1952 (9), 1952-D (15), 1953 (8), 1953-D (20), 1954-D (6), 1955 (15), 1955-D (19), 1956 (25), 1956-D (51), 1957 (10), 1957-D (48), 1958 (9) and 1958-D (15). In addition to the wheats there was 1-George VI and 4-Young Queen Canadian cents. I also put together a couple rolls of bright red cents, dated 1964-1968. All in all, I added 4 coins to my "found in rolls" Lincoln cent album, plus another 3 "upgraders". I was really surprised by the lack of S-mint wheats in the hoard. I remember them being fairly common in change when I was a kid.

I remember searching rolls in the early 70's, trying to fill my Lincoln cent album. I remember only saving the Pre 1940 wheats, and putting the rest back in the rolls. In this group, I only found a total of 10 pre-1940 coins. In my memories of that time, I remember finding more than that--but without and statistics to back up my memory, it could just be wishful thinking. Anyhow, thanks to the thoughtfulness of a couple tellers at my local bank I got to spend an afternoon as a 10 year old kid, back in 1972!!!

Did the old bat bring in any dimes?

Also there should be some guns for sale soon in your area.

[quote="Thogey"]Did the old bat bring in any dimes?

No, no other coins. The tellers are all silver searchers and they either show me or tell me about their finds. There was a name on some of the rolls--I'm wanting to search the obits and see if he did pass away.

I just found the obituary. Owner passed away in 2010. I was checking obits from the past year and his name didn't turn up. Makes me wonder why those coins turned up now. At least the pennies didn't go to the Fed!

Widow just finally got around to dumping them. I know a widow that dumped a bunch of coins(without consulting anyone) right after the funeral, but she is still holding on to the guns. No particular reason. She says she wants them gone, and I and others offered to buy the LARGE collection. But they just sit there, uncared for, for the last 5-6 years. I'm not gonna try to understand what goes through the widows' minds.

Nice score!
Coingrats.

John Reich wrote:I just found the obituary. Owner passed away in 2010. I was checking obits from the past year and his name didn't turn up. Makes me wonder why those coins turned up now. At least the pennies didn't go to the Fed!

Estates often take many years to settle out. I inherited a house back in 2009 and couldn't sell it til 2013. My wife's mom passed away in 2007 and they still haven't fully settled everything. And this was a modest estate. If her parents were rich, it could've taken even longer.

How cool!