Question About Recently Made BU Lincoln Cents

I agree with cladking. Look, morons are breaking into houses and stealing the copper pipes, people will hoard all copper cents because of melt value. It's already started, I've seen people on these forums talking about stashing away all the copper cents they can find. I suspect you can find bags of pre-82's on ebay already.

I think the penny will be gone that soon.

I expect metals prices to continue higher with inflation and any day now Congress will get a scare when the nickels disappear from circulation. This will simply force them to wake up and do something. Steel pennies are going to seem pretty stupid when people start trying to figure out how to make change without any nickels.

Nickels are 75% copper; and Nickel is not as cheap as it used to be, either. Replace them with a steel version and the old ones are sure to disappear.

Archraz, there was a thread on here where someone stated a box of nickels went for $138, bullion value.

I got some brand new 2008 lincoln in change(fresh from the roll, I saw the cashier break the roll open). They were extrememly nice and proof like but they had think black spots all over them.

Absolutely. $50 in pre-82 cents sells for about $70-$80 shipped right now. There is currently a ban on melting copper pennies for bullion after a company out of Ohio called Jackson Metals started doing it on a commercial level... I suspect once the steel penny comes on-line and the melt ban is lifted, copper Memorials will vanish the way that silver coins did in the mid-60s.

i happened to pick up some customer rolls at the bank today that appear to have been rolled in '87 or so, and I'm just appalled at how badly most of the mid-80s Lincolns were struck... They're practically junk.

Is there any kind of non-damaging solvent that can be put on Lincs pulled out of circulation to prevent further tarnishing?

No, putting anything on the coin will damage it. The best thing to do is protect it from air, i.e. airtite, 2x2, plastic bags with dessicant pack.

So we are all more or less in agreement that those annoying spots are from oil & etc that gets on the cents while still at the mint. My other question is if these spots are much more common now and why.