Small-Apples Sorter - Intro

[hammerrob]

I'm a long-time coin collector, and about 6 months ago starting 'hoarding' copper cents. Where I work there are 9 different bank branches where I can easily stop by sometime during the day and get two rolls of pennies. No one seems to care if you have an account with the bank when you are asking for just 2 rolls of pennies. I'll spend about 5 minutes each night hand sorting them ... which is about all I have time for!

I thought I was pretty big time until I came accross this website a couple weeks ago. 25k-50k pennies/wk sounds like a full time job even with a machine!

Anyway, here's what I've found so far:

1) Here in NJ I probably average about 30% copper
2) Haven't found much of anything from a numismatic perspective. I guess my best find was a 1947 Canadien in nice condition. Maybe I'd do better if I looked for errors, but I just don't have that kind of time.
3) Probably get about 1 wheatie every 150 pennies or so ... they are almost always from the 1950's. I can probably count on one hand the number of pre-1940 pennies. Canadiens are probably about the same percentage .... one every 150 pennies or so.

I imagine a scenario like this ... in the next 5 years or so copper prices push $7-8/lb. It'll probably still be illegal to melt them, but maybe I'll be able to sell reliably for $4-5/lb. Anything more than that would be gravy. In a hyper-inflation / end-of-days scenario I have doubts about whether a copper hoard will be of much value, but I don't think I'll have enough of a stash to make much of a difference anyway.

Anyway, it's interesting to read what other people are doing and finding, good luck to everyone sorting out there!

Rob

[68Camaro]

Welcome to the insanity!

[balz]

Welcome!

[NotABigDeal]

Welcome. No matter the volume you sort, at least you are wise enough to sort at all. Careful though, many a good hand sorting men have been turned to the dark side of machines, hehe....

Welcome once again and post well and often!

Deal

[Morsecode]

These 2 rolls a day guys are the ones that end up finding the '14d and '55 doubled dies

Good luck & happy hunting!

[sparechange]

Welcome to the forum. It will be surprizing how quickly your hoard grows if you stick with it. Pounds or tons, the addiction will only increase along with your hoard. Happy searching and your % is better than mine and in most cases so is your wheat finds!

[NHsorter]

Early on I felt a little weird asking for too much coin at a bank, but I think that you might find that it is easier than you think. Go ahead and ask for a box. It will save you a bunch of trips to the bank. The worse they can say is no. I'll stop into any bank I am near, if I am a customer or not, and ask for 2 boxes. They usually just hand them over. Rarely do they ask if I am a customer. I have found that saying "Hi, I need 2 boxes of pennies please" (as I am slapping $50 cash on the counter) It has a much better success rate than "CAN I get 2 boxes of pennies"

Happy hoarding!!

[68Camaro]

Yeah - the magic phrase in most banks that is accepted "teller speak" (which makes you seem like you know what you are doing and expect the answer to be yes) is, "I would like to place a change order for a box of pennys please".

[Coppercrazy]

ramp it up! Im a hand sorter,so im still small apples in the whole scheme of things...when I started I used to get 10.00 face at a time...now its either one box or however many bags off the machine there willing to sell....yes,the unsorteds are pilling up...someday ill get a ryedale...I cant swing it right now...happy hunting!

[adagirl]

Welcome! As you have probably already figured out, there are alot of great people on here. Enjoy, and when your ready ramp up your Cu collection efforts

[hammerrob]

Thanks for the welcome from everyone!

I'd have no problem asking for a box of pennies, but between work/kids/wife/house it would take me a long time to sort it ... I'd probably put it off because it would look like too much work. If a grab $1 worth of pennies every day the task is always fresh and very doable. I put more energy into buying foreign silver coins on Ebay below bullion prices... surprising number of opportunities out there, and there's fewer barriers to unlocking value than copper.

Anway, forgot to mention in my original post my two oddball finds .. a Eurocent and Panamanian cent.

Thanks, Rob

[shinnosuke]

Hammertime! Glad you joined. Keep sharing your success stories with us.

[John_doe]

Welcome to the board!

I hand sorted for 2 years. No shame there. Great hobby, but you'll eventually get hooked.