Is Looking Through Loose Change Worth The Time?

The odds of finding a rare coin by chance in your pocket change are in fact, rare.

But you can look for other things. If you have a coin folder, there will always be another hole to fill. And it's always fun to find a wheat-back Lincoln Cent. And every time a new year rolls around, it's fun to check your change each day trying to find the first coin with the latest date.

I did once find a 1955 Roosevelt dime in circulation. Not only is it silver, it's sort of a semi-key! And just a few months ago, I found an Indian Head cent which was about 130 years old in my change. So I say, yes, it's worth the time to check. You never know what might turn up.

I have only found 4 silver quarters, and three of them were from pocket change. It never hurts to take 5 seconds to look!

to CCF. The short answer to your question is YES. If you are a coin collector you just naturally examine your change.
As to finding a rare coin,define rare? As to finding a valuable coin,define valuable. My most valuable find (retail) is worth around $300 for a LMC. My most valuable find (sentimental) is a bicentennial quarter that was found last week in my deceased mothers' purse. So,if were planning on sitting down and looking through change as a living then don't do that.If your looking for a lifelong hobby then I recommend it.Good luck and have fun.
John1

Its a hobby! If searching is fun for you, then do it. If your doing it to make money, your time is better spent doing something you enjoy.

My experience in doing this, is that you get more efficient as your knowledge grows. You start getting familiar with the key dates and condition requirements that are associated with value and desirability. Thus you spend less time doing it as your experience grows but still enjoyable.

At my age, I do it out of force of habit, not because I expect to find anything.

Every coin is unique. They each have different die and strike characteristics and then they get into circulation and the random walk that causes their wear is unique. Every coin has a great story to tell and the more you look at them the more you can learn their stories.

You aren't going to get rich searching pocket change but there is far more rarity in circulation than ever before. Almost anything can show up and a few of these have been worth a great deal of money. I've snagged quite a few coins from circulation since 1965. Before that I found nothing that would be worth more than $10 today. Beyond the unreported varieties, rarities, and Gems that can be found there are important coins in circulation. For instance that high end XF 1982-P quarter that is so "common" that it escapes unnoticed might be one of the handful that was well struck by new dies.

It takes time and effort to learn what's worthwhile in pocket change but the rewards are mostly in the knowledge gained rather than the rarities you snag. But maybe someday these rarities will be recognized and they just might get a large price tag added to them.

Best of luck. Go slow at first and fill folders and albums with the nicest specimen you can find. This will require effort and be a source of pride in itself and it can also be used as a reference collection to identify varieties. In assembling this collection I always first make sure the new specimen is exactly the same as the existing one and then I only swap in the new one if it is clearly superior in strike and has less wear.

If you don't enjoy this then there are millions of other ways to enjoy coin collecting. Do only those that you enjoy and try not to get rich or you'll probably get taken.

Yes. And there are good reasons for doing that. So many people have old coins in jars, cans, boxes, etc. and once in a while dump them at a bank. At times too, kids take coins from a parents collection and spend them. And of course there is that old thing called home robberies. Those are the ones where a dumb criminal takes a coin collection and spends it like it was just money.