How Long Before LMCs Show Up In Bulk Bins?

Exactly.

It's been estimated that more than 10% of brand new cents get used one time and are thrown in the garbage. Many go in a coin jar and might never be used again if the owner doesn't redeem them when they are recalled. The zinc coins will corrode and destroy many of the cents around it as well.

Attrition on cents is simply staggering and now many of the copper LMC are being destroyed for their metal or hoarded against the time they can be legally melted. Zinc attrition is probably over 5% annually. It doesn't take all that long for mintages to become meaningless. The wheat cents are much better protected and have an attrition rate of only about 2%. Much of even this low attrition is the result of the most common wheaties getting spent.

I doubt there will be enough demand to see LMC being sold in bulk. The discontinuation of the series in the near future will cause a lot of new interest and higher prices but it will be for the higher grades and not for the type of thing normally found in circulation. By the time these are scarce enough that a premium is warranted in fifty years there won't be any demand for typical coins.

I'd guess that in ten years there will be some demand for nice mixtures of the type of thing in circulation. This means uncherry picked and culls removed. The premium won't be high enough to pay postage for shipping except in the largest quantities. There just won't ever be a real market here.

But the future is bright for uncs, gems, and monsters. Many of the zincs will be tough in nice unc and there will be enough demand for gems to make them more expensive than they are now. There will be greatly increased demand for varieties.

Exactly Steve. I am talking about the buckets of loose coins - typically wheats, buffaloes, mercs, indian heads, etc. I too am in the doubtful camp when it comes to zinc cents - I just don't think there will ever be a market for them in anything less than MS (except for some of the errors).

Coppers though - maybe. I can see them going for 2 or 3 cents due to the copper value - similar to silver coins going for face x 14 (dependent upon the price of silver).

Knowing that zincs are basically going to be worthless in anything less than pristine condition - is anyone hoarding them for posterity's sake (i.e., grandchildren)?

They are already there. I sold several over the years at between .25 and .50 each (better pieces). In bulk I think I was charging .50 each, 3 for $1.00 and 7 or 8 for $2.00. Is it worth slabbing these coins in cardboard 2 x 2's? Probably not but I was doing it anyway and selling a few helped offset the price of the supplies. Sincerely, John Leckrone