Collecting Pre-1982 Pennies

Go to your local bank and ask for a $25.00 box of cents. This should be an even exchange $25.00 for a $25.00 box of cents I hope. Some banks are not cooperative but most do. Now you can go through the 50 rolls and separate the coins. Happy searching and buy a few books on what to look for.
WELCOME! to the CCF! I'm still new too!

And welcome to roll searching, that is how many of us started in this hobby.

At the bank you literally just tell them you want X amount of dollars in pennies. If you wanted 50 dollars you would just say I need 50 dollars in pennies. You wont get to pick what you get itll just be whatever happens to be in the rolls in the vault. If its a large enough dollar amount theyll more than likely tell you theyll order it for you since they dont want you to take their whole supply.

Its a great way to search for things at face value and scratch that coin itch without spending much money at all

Google Ryedale sorter and you'll find out about the sorters. You can even buy em on ebay or his own website.

If you use the machine, you might miss out other keepers, plus the price is costy.

BadThad, I respectfully disagree. My penny collection ends in 1982, with the exception of a couple of cool errors/PMD that I have found past that date. I'm not interested in collecting Zincolns.


SNG, I agree that your best bet is roll-searching. I'm going to make a further suggestion that has helped me: Is there an area in your town where there's a bank surrounded by a lot of businesses? Select that bank as the one you request rolls from. You will be able to go through CWR (customer-wrapped rolls), and because those businesses will need a lot of change, the change turnover at the bank will be high. In a little over a year I've put together what I call a "magpie collection" (i.e. "oooh, that's shiny, I want it!") of over 200 pieces ranging from Peace dollars to wheat pennies, just by working at a gas station and occasionally popping up to our bank when the pickings get slim to buy a box of my own.

I also have the luxury of buying nice things out of my drawer that I don't want but know people here on the forum will want, and I encourage you--if you have a few dollars to spare, that is--to consider this, also, when you roll-hunt. You don't yet have enough posts to trade, but when you do this is a great way to supplement your collection. My personal example is hoarding the ATB (America the Beautiful) quarters out of my drawer even though I don't personally collect them; many of the folks on here are trying to complete a set and are having trouble finding nice examples in their area, so I can trade these for things I want and we both win. This is something to keep in mind as you search.

And finally: don't volunteer too much information ("Oh, yeah, I've gotten lots of silver dimes from this bank and I want to see if I can find more!"), but if an apparently skittish teller asks what you want the money for, be friendly, polite, and honest--tellers who have had good experiences with roll-hunters and collectors will be more likely to help you in the future.

Carl, what are you NO-ing?