I Think I Need To Get Serious About Lincoln Cents

Typical rule is never clean. But to remove loose debris, I would consider distilled water and some agree and disagree on olive oil. Both are non abrasive, but both do take time, so be patient.

For a ground find I'd just wash them over the sink with your fingers. No need to pamper with distilled water. DO NOT SOAK THEM IN COKE OR USE ANY CLEANERS on them. DO NOT RUB them with a cloth or anything. If the sink trick doesn't do a good enough job, soak them in some xylene. That's about as far as you can go without ruining them (from a collectors standpoint).

how can I get a BU box of 2008 lincolns

how are you supposed to get them, "as they flow"?

I don't roll-hunt Lincolns, but I save everey wheatie I get. I just keep them in tubes. Do we think the memorial back is going to come back in 2010, or should I be thinking about saving those now?

Maybe 1981 and earlier? Or not?

I've been collecting Lincoln cents for a little over a quarter century now. Through my life in Lincolns I have bought verything I could afford when I could afford it. Over the years I have run into countless deals of BU rolls, wheat bags, and have bought box after box from banks as I travel around. I now have so many coins I will probably never be able to make it all the way through them one at a time.

Interesting thing, though....as I sit on them they just keep adding up to more value. BU rolls I bought for $5-$10 each back in the 90s are now worth $50-$75 each. Some of the rolls I bought have gone up five to ten times in value! I have a BU roll of 1942S cents that I paid $125 for in 1990. That same roll now is worth over $650! I bought a baggie full of 1931D cents in EF-AU for $6 per coin five years ago. Currently an EF sells for $12 and an AU sells for nearly $30! I bought a baggie of mixed early Lincolns three years ago for 15 cents a coin, opened them up six months ago and ended up with nearly a thousand dollars worth of decent F-VF 1911S, 1914S, 1915D, 1924D, and other 'semi-key' coins. I've had a really good life buying, and you could too if the values keep going where they have been.

Unfortunately now may not be the right time to 'get into' buying better Lincolns because they are on the rise...but then again, the top may still be way ahead of us and this is only the middle of the climb - who knows? All I know is that I'm loving every minute of having bought rolls of early date Lincolns years ago at 10-20% of current value!