Wheat-Back Pennies: What Is The Appeal?

I will take a stab in the form of a list:
- For many of us, they were the coin which got us started in our youth. Everyone had a Whitman folder growing up.
- They can still be found in circulation
- Everyone likes Abe Lincoln
- They are an attractive coin: MS-Red, toned, nicely worn, an attractive looking coin.
- They can be reasonably priced in high grades
- Many people collect them, so they are readily available

That's a big part of it for me. Old dimes and quarters were pulled from circulation years ago due to their silver content, whereas a lot of wheat-back pennies are still in circulation because they don't look different from more modern cents upon cursory examination. It's just so amazing to look through your pocket change and see a coin that is 60-100 years old staring you in the face...

Oh, and

Thanks everyone for the replies. That makes a lot of sense. I guess I was wondering because I see so many of them in my coin jar that I didn't quite understand the "collection" value.

I was looking at a couple of the local coin clubs websites in New Jersey. One of them had their members collect a number of pennies from the local bank, sorted through them, and then categorize them. In total it was something like 30,000 coins. A lot were relatively recent, they found a bunch of Wheaties, and I know that they found one very old penny. Seems like a lot of work but if you're the person who found that really old coin I guess it's really fun too!

Do any of you actually clean the circulated coins to make them look shinier or do you leave them in the state you found them?

You don't even clean coins that have been in circulation? I understand not wanting to do that for mint coins.

I guess part of the appeal of having circulated coin is the dirt and toning on it?

They're reminders of a bygone era AND 95% copper.

Let's start with:

Bienvenidos, wilkommen, ç"¨ã�"ã��, ni'hao, Buon Giorno, shalom, bienvenue, welcome! (I'm in a mood tonight, apparently.)


Let's continue with:

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER CLEAN COINS


And finally: wheats are the coin I most commonly find in circulation, and I'm a circulation collector. Also, I really, really like the design of the back; I've mentioned before and will say again that if ever our dollar deflated to the point that a cent was once again desirable, I can think of no more beautiful redesign than the Liberty Indian obverse, wheat reverse, with the typeface for the back being updated to the new one on the back of the shield cents.

- Cool design
- They're COPPER, I like copper
- Challenging to collect (there's a lot of coins needed to complete)
- Generally, a good supply in the marketplace
- Lots of varieties and errors keeps it interesting
- Beautifully toned examples (I like toning)
- Most are resonably priced
- Like LOVE Abe, he made and defined history

I'm a Canadian Lincoln Cent collector, I just go crazy when we get a box of cents and find Lincoln wheat backs in them.

We, have a complete set, sans the 09S VDB..