Cent Project Discussion

I'm a little over half way done with my $50 sorting by last number and so far I have found 10 wheat cents, 7 Canadian cents and 1 1971s. I do have several that I can't read the dates but look like they are zinc. I've already signed up for another $50 worth.

In the search so far I am receiving reports of the following as earliest finds...

An 1860s store card coin, 19mm in diameter. Appears to be a sort of Civil War Token.

The following cents:

1913
1923
1925S
1938

A large number of wheat cents have been popping up, averaging ten or so per sort. Very odd anomaly in the data so far - the most common wheat found so far is 1944P (plain).

No surprise, Northerners are finding Canadian cents: 50-75 per person in the northern tier. Myself, usually 1-3 per sort. I live in the center of the US.

No blatant oddities in the numbers so far. As expected, no 1970S small dates. Two 1960P small dates have been found, one by this author. For the most part, those East are finding much greater numbers of Philly cents, and those West are finding far more Denver cents.

So far I have the tally total for roughly 35,000 coins. Still looking for well over a million before all is said and done.

Still accepting volunteers!

In an effort to help this research I will purchase $50 in Cents when I get home and go through them. I However know very little about Lincolns so I will probably miss a lot.

By way pointers for sorting this is my method .



These are fishing tackle lure boxes for this sort Iam using three of them ,, I break all the rolls into a container (cool whip plastic container) from the container I sort by year one year per pocket (this box shown is 1990 thru 2007)I have the three boxes which provides enough room for 60 thru 2007 plus the varieties dates that need to be totaled by large date small date ) I do not sort by MM yet ,,once all the coins are sorted by date I remove them one year at a time and sort by MM count each and enter the values into a simple spread sheet from Microsoft works adding each sort to the total .

I only handle each coin twice its fast and easy ,, and the boxes make a perfect storage area if each sort is not completed at a sitting . I also store all my circulated wheats by year in these boxes all the time . as well as State Quarters, nickels, and dimes.

Metalman

Metalman, et. al...

I understand everyone is going to employ their personal choice in sorting coins. My personla choice is to use the method I posted on the cent project website, where ALL coins are sorted into ten containers by last digit without doing any other sorting...THEN take each container and sort them by date, then separate the mintmarks. Here's why:

1. It's faster, and you touch each coin fewer times.
2. It groups ALL the coins of the same date together, no matter how large the sort. This allows you to spot oddities FAR more easily...if you have a group of coins and you're looking through them unsorted, you'd see a 1990, then a 1982, then a 1973, then a 2004, etc...your eyes never get adjusted to a single design (all of these years used different designs). If you're looking through 195 coins that are all 1988, you're FAR more likely to spot the ONE that's a transitional reverse variety. Just makes sense.
3. Sorting like this uses far fewer containers. If you're sorting into 10 containers, it will go FAR faster than sorting into 50 containers. Much smaller margin for error.
4. Sorting into fewer containers allows you to put them away more easily for a later date. Back when I sorted into decades first, I used 5 containers for the decades, then 10 containers for the years. That's 15 containers. With them sorted by last digit first, I use only the ten containers. Sorting into the final pile of four or five decades is easy and fast and can be done with a gallon tub of coins in a half hour or less...and yes, I have had full gallon containers of cents sorted by last digit...where all I had to do was separate the 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, and 2005 cents. This is a cinch compared to taking all the coins from the 1970s and sorting each date.

There's definitely a method to my madness, and believe me, it really works better and faster, and is the most efficient way to sort cents I have ever seen.

Metalman,

The only thing we are counting is what is in the spreadsheet found here-
http://www.thecentproject.com/news.php

Thanks Chrsb

That is what Iam counting ,,I was just wondering because chuck brought up the transitional reverses and design changes in his post .

My spread sheet looks essentially like the one on the PDF ,,and I can't use the excel so I will continue with mine as it is .

Arthrene Its good to see another that has found the compartmental boxes ,,I really like mine !

both for this type of search and also for stroage as I mentioned earlier.

Metalman