Coin Survival Rate

I think coinage is the way to go I have Chinese coin from 630 BC its worn but it still looks like a coin and some of there writing is still there too & its bronze & green. I think do well as years go by.

I do not know how you could even start doing one. Over the last month I read a story about how Large Cents were traded in for the Flying Eagle and at that time how some people were allowed to go through them and put sets together. What the article did not say was how many coins were traded in, saved and how many did not get traded at all. If this is just one situation in time how about the rest of them? Growing up it was nothing to drop a coin and not care and even at times through them away by mistake. How many coins are sitting in landfills, sewers, holes in the backyard, safety deposit boxes and other hiding places. These factors alone seem like they would mess up such a study, just my two bits on it.