how old do they have to be to really be worth decent money? what are they worth at different dates?

1/1/2006 11:18:19 PM

if they are considered legal tender, they are still worth 1 cent.

1/1/2006 11:22:04 PM

i use to have a copper 1943 penny

only 50 were made and they are now worth a ton

wish to god i woulda known when i was 8 that it was worth a lot

1/1/2006 11:23:38 PM

depends on who wants to buy it

if you used a wheat penny as legal tender, you could be cheating yourself out around 50 cents

1/1/2006 11:24:02 PM

Quote :

"depends on who wants to buy it"

very true

1/1/2006 11:25:19 PM

are any at least worth a dollar? And where can u sell them?

[Edited on January 1, 2006 at 11:49 PM. Reason : a]

1/1/2006 11:48:43 PM

Quote :

"only 50 were made and they are now worth a ton"

I doubt there were only 50 made. I know it's not many, but 50 in the whole world is a paltry sum. Assuming it's true, how would you manage to come by one of the 50 remaining, being that you are relatively young, and still not know the significance?

1/2/2006 12:28:36 AM

it's drunknloaded.

he's a dumbass.

1/2/2006 12:29:39 AM

http://www.pcgs.com/coinguidetext/display_chapter.chtml?chapter=value

[Edited on January 2, 2006 at 12:30 AM. Reason : .]

1/2/2006 12:30:17 AM

i have always heard that the composition changed slightly in late 1982, such that 1982 and older pennies are more worth keeping around than 1983 and newer pennies... but this would be fractions of a cent though probably... i haven't seen actual documentation to back up that theory

-ZiP!-

1/2/2006 12:30:57 AM

I know that most pennies made in 1943 were damn near pure zinc...copper was needed for the war effort. So there might be some truth to the copper penny thing.

1/2/2006 1:12:00 AM

so does anybody actually know anything regarding this subject?

1/2/2006 1:55:05 AM

Its not how old the coin is, its how rare it is...theres a very very big difference

1/2/2006 2:09:52 AM

^so how do u know is what im askin. what do i need to look for? I got a few thousand pennies from my grandpa and a lot of them are really old and i dont wanna cash them out if some are worth something.

[Edited on January 2, 2006 at 2:21 AM. Reason : ,]

1/2/2006 2:20:53 AM

Go to the library, get a book on coin collecting. Too hard to list all the qualities you need to look for. Go ahead though and get rid of all the scratched and ones in poor quality

1/2/2006 2:27:22 AM

http://www.littletoncoin.com/retail/products.nsf/CatCents?OpenView

1/2/2006 8:53:55 AM

Quote :

"I know that most pennies made in 1943 were damn near pure zinc...copper was needed for the war effort. So there might be some truth to the copper penny thing."

They were made of STEEL. I have several.

1/2/2006 2:32:57 PM

I have two rolls of steel 1943 steel pennies. I'm clearly not doubting that. I'm questioning drunknloaded's assertion that he supposedly possessed one of only 50 1943 coppers and didn't know it was worth anything.

1/2/2006 2:48:39 PM

i think its like 50 still in circulation

1/2/2006 2:58:11 PM

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=fun_facts2a

40. And if he had one, then he had something of value between 10k and 90k.

1/2/2006 3:44:43 PM

I have one of these

http://www.littletoncoin.com/retail/products.nsf/MainFrameset?OpenFrameSet&Frame=ContentFrame&Src=%2Fretail%2Fproducts.nsf%2F6e36f301640125c38525699600701be8%2F117557b41c6f06e185256cf3005ff84b%3FEditDocument%26AutoFramed

1/2/2006 5:15:27 PM

i don't know if it's pre-1982 or pre 1983, but we did the lab in high school to see that whichever it was had about the same density as copper

1/2/2006 6:11:18 PM

youd high school didnt have bunsen burners?

1/2/2006 6:18:56 PM

yeah... but we were on the whole theory of water displacement and how to find out what irregularly-shaped things are by looking at densities.

1/2/2006 6:25:42 PM

i have a 1920 mercury dime with a wheat penny "one cent" minted on the back

1/3/2006 4:43:27 AM

^how much mercury is in the dime... since mercury is a liquid at rt, and is that safe, however much it is?

1/3/2006 1:15:23 PM

I think Mercury in the dime refers to the god/goddess not the element. just a guess.

1/3/2006 1:20:12 PM

I paid $3 at a flea market for 2 sets of steel pennies

1/3/2006 2:27:11 PM

Pennies are no longer pure copper because awhile back, the copper in a penny became more valuable that 1 cent, and people were melting them down and selling the copper, that is why modern day pennies are a composit.

1/3/2006 2:30:14 PM

Quote :

"Assuming it's true, how would you manage to come by one of the 50 remaining, being that you are relatively young, and still not know the significance?"

pretty easily . . . someone people are stupid and don't know what they have. Someone breaks into a coin shop and steals whatever or it gets stolen from a private house and ends up back in circulation. My dad worked in a gas station one time and some guy came in and used a silver dollar from around 1900 as just a dollar. And that was a coin that was in a protetive plastic case. And most people aren't gonna look at a penny enough to notice a difference, they are too oblivious. So long as its about the right size and color they could care less. Its like people spending canadian pennies.

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 3:45 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2006 3:44:47 PM

^^^^ thanks... i dunno too much about coins, just chemistry

1/3/2006 4:36:35 PM

Quote :

"Someone breaks into a coin shop and steals whatever or it gets stolen from a private house and ends up back in circulation. My dad worked in a gas station one time and some guy came in and used a silver dollar from around 1900 as just a dollar."

yup...crackwhore came in and asked dad to swap 40 morgan's into two twenties. he told her to buy something so he could give her change, and then called us as 2am and told us to scrape together $40 cash so he could get those out of circulation.

turned out they were stolen, and those coins were the only thing recovered from that robbery. and everything they'd stolen was that man's inheritance

1/3/2006 4:39:05 PM

I collect coins so I'll weigh in....unless it's uncirculated or in damn near mint condition, a lincoln penny isn't worth more than a buck. Some of the pre-1930 pennies with the S mint stamp might bring in $20 in very good condtion.

A 1955 double die will get you good money and a 1909 S will get you good money as well. Other than that, you're not going to make anything more than a buck or two.

1/3/2006 5:25:07 PM

try to haggle with store clerks

try paying for a tank of gas with a hand full of these magical pennies

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 6:37 PM. Reason : a]

1/3/2006 6:37:27 PM

2 words

ASS PENNIES

1/3/2006 6:53:27 PM

Check ebay and see what they're going for or call a bank. Maybe even see an appraiser. (sp?)

My Grandpa's friend found a penny in a car lot one time and he was looking at it when he noticed it was a penny on one side and a dime on the other. The gov't ended up giving him a few million dollars to get it back.

1/3/2006 7:50:29 PM

We need to get with the program and eliminate pennies all together. That and Sat. mail.

1/3/2006 7:58:38 PM

^^Why would they do that?

1/3/2006 8:51:32 PM

^^^ me thinks your grandpa lied to you

1/3/2006 9:29:27 PM

Granpa is a..........................LIIIIIIIAAAAAR!!!!!!

1/3/2006 10:37:54 PM

Quote :

"^^Why would they do that?"

the government doesn't like making mistakes

1/3/2006 10:39:26 PM

^Exactly. And they didn't want him re-selling it at an auction or something like that and making more money off of a gov't mistake.

1/3/2006 11:25:22 PM

I'm going with Grandpa is a liar

1/3/2006 11:28:01 PM

I met the guy-I don't recall ever typing that "Grandpa told me.." The guy had pics (which I looked at). Believe it or not, but I'm not defending it to a bunch of dumb fucks like yourselves.

1/3/2006 11:35:09 PM

The government paid him several million dollars because they minted a coin wrong? That makes no sense. They didn't want him making money off of their mistake, so they just gave him the money instead. That's ridiculous. I may be able to swallow up to $1,000 or so, but "several million"? Please.

1/3/2006 11:49:43 PM

there have been botched coins, stamps, and bills in the past

although collectors pay big $$ for them, I never heard of the govt buying back a misprint

and I don't know how minting is done, but a penny on one side and a dime on the other doesn't really sound possible

1/3/2006 11:55:56 PM

mess up coins aren't supposed to be put into circulation

sometimes the bad ones find their way out of the mints by mistake

sometimes the bad ones are snuck out and sold by mint employees...which is illegal

so if a coin is in circulation that isn't and didn't "naturally" make it's way out of the mint, then i can see the government wanting to pursue the acquisition of said coin and punish whoever sold it

1/4/2006 12:04:26 AM

I saw the pics a long time ago-long before old people knew how to photoshop.

And I said a "FEW million", not "SEVERAL million".

And the gov't collects rare mistakes like that to go in museums and such (dont know where this one ended up going to, though)-IF, of course, they wouldn't rather have it destroyed. Like, if you find a double stamped penny-they're worth quite more than one cent. And the gov't likes to get them back for that purpose.

[Edited on January 4, 2006 at 12:08 AM. Reason : m]

1/4/2006 12:06:58 AM

Yeah, I can understand that, but for some reason I can't see the government offering that much money. There's not much difference in my mind between "a few" and "several." They could just take it back if they wanted, or they could charge the person in possession with extortion if he tried to force them into paying an unreasonable price.

1/4/2006 12:20:07 AM

yeah, seriously

whether it's 2 million or 25 million, it's still a fucking lot of money

1/4/2006 12:23:26 AM