sifting

[totient]

Sifting through 2500 of roozle's coins the other day, I found one silver dime, two wheat cents, and no bicentennial quarters. I'm not surprised that the wheat cents are getting less common (any pre-83 penny is worth a little more than 3c for the copper in it, and machines can easily tell them apart by the weight). I'm a little surprised, though, at how quickly 1976 quarters have disappeared from circulation, and even more surprised that my rate of finding silver in circulation is going up over time, even though silver coinage is now worth over 20 times face value. Is it just me?

Comments

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

I don't know what I'll do with it, but I have a jar of copper pennies (including a few wheat backs). The post-83 pennies, I tend to get rid of them at the supermarket's bulk candy section ("samples" are $0.05).

Last year(?), I read an article that there's a coin collector that has been "releasing into the wild" wheat backs, with the hope that kids will find them and develop an interest in collecting coins.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Just found an article on Snopes confirming the story about the coin collector.

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/travers.asp
(three pennies with values of $200, $300, and $1,000)