Rarity of Steelies?

[Hawkeye]

Last night, I found a 1943 steel penny in my sorting. I've probably gone through well over $2000 in pennies and this is my first one. I've found 5 Indian Heads, but never a steelie. I'm just curious as to how often you guys/gals find them. Are they rarer than IHs? I was pretty pumped last night.

[AdamsSamoa]

NEVER....

[Slaphot]

I have found one Indian in all of my sorting, but i have found about 10 or more steelies.

I'll trade you 5 steelies for 5 Indians.

[RichardPenny43]

I've found more steelies then indians.
I probably average one for every $1500-2000 sorted.

[Country]

In the last 393 boxes of pennies, I have found 6 Indians. I have found "0" steelies. NADA...

[scyther]

I've found 6 so far, but 4 were from one bag. Outside that one weird bag, just 2 after $2k searched. Still more common than Indians though; I've only found one.

[Hawkeye]

Interesting. Looks like I'm about about average for steelies and have been very lucky with my small tribe of 5 Indians in $2000-3000 worth.

[crbattery]

$1800 searched. 7 steels 4 IH's. One steel was an ender too! That was pretty neat to find. I took a picture, I'll upload it later when I get time:)
HH
CR

[pennypicker]

$2000+ searched and I've found two Indians and one steelie. The steelie was a nice uncirculated speciman which I found rather odd.

[henrysmedford]

We have found close to 100 as being steel the magnet on the coin counter get them. We find them weekly in coin counters see--http://www.realcent.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8274 You can see them in more the one scan.

[Morsecode]

Sorting, hardly ever. But I get 8 or 10 a week from the Arcade magnet. If they're BU or AU they get saved. Anything with rust gets round filed.

[Romalae]

I've found a grand total of one Steelie in my entire penny-sorting tenure. Oddly, it was before I started sorting in mass quantities and only purchased a few rolls at a time.

I think the reason that you don't see them much is because of their magnetic property; when inserted into coin processing machines, they get caught by the magnet and rejected.

Makes you wonder how many Steelies are out there unaccounted for because they were tossed into the garbage by way of the internal rejection slot in coin machines.

[hobo finds]

Sorting, hardly ever. But I get 8 or 10 a week from the Arcade magnet. If they're BU or AU they get saved. Anything with rust gets round filed.

Round filed? I thought you would just set them free to be found again instead of trashing them...

[dannan14]

Sorting, hardly ever. But I get 8 or 10 a week from the Arcade magnet. If they're BU or AU they get saved. Anything with rust gets round filed.

Round filed? I thought you would just set them free to be found again instead of trashing them...

Gotta throw future archaeologists a bone or two every now and then!

[Morsecode]

When they're rusty cruddy I put em out of their misery.

[highroller4321]

I find a steelie about every other day or so. They are a lot more common then the indians!

[henrysmedford]

I should add that by younger son Theodore is going to do a talk on coins to his Boy Scout troop as part of his merit badge on coin collecting. And at the end of his talk he is giving out steel cent samples to each scout.

Untitled by henrysmedford, on Flickr

[reddirtcoins]

I find steel wheats just about every week. The trick is on the cummins machine is to "feel" around the magnets while you dump. Get them all of the time that way. Sometimes they are a little hard to get at but it beats the teller just tossing them into the trash. Oh, I also find them in the trash can next to the coin counter.

[fansubs_ca]

I found one of the steel 1943s sorting up here in Canada, of course thats sorting
almost entirely CWR. Unknown how many I've sorted total to find that.

At one point I remember a coin shop selling them for 5¢ each in North Dakota.
(Late 1980s) I also have 5 I bought there.

They are basically "rare in circulation" because they don't change hands often
but not really "rare". So kinda like the commenorative 1951 Canadian Nickels,
there is a lot out there, but mostly in hoards.

[spacemanX]

9 month of searching:
6 Indians
7 steels last year,
11 this year, but 10 of those were in one roll with other wheats