5000 Wheat Cents...

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Now here's an item everyone needs. A whole bag of wheat cents, 5000 of the little buggers!

This is an unsorted bag. Let me make that clear to you. We don't have the time to check dates on wheat cents. Does that mean you may find rare and valuable coins? It's possible, but I'm not going to insult your intelligence and suggest that no one has checked these over in the last 50 years or so.

What you will get is 5000 wheat cents (sometimes called pennies by people who can't read), mostly in the 40s and 50s, but some earlier. I see the occasional steel cent. That's the nature of Wheat cent bags, because the 40s and 50s are when most of them were made.

Think of the fun you can have with these:


Give your mail person a hernia.

Keep your kid busy for a few hours ("Gee, dad, this one is older than you are. I didn't know they had money back then").

Prop that door open once and for all.


Do you remember when you could buy silver coins for just 10% over face value, and prices continued to skyrocket as silver prices went up?

Well guess what, old cents made before 1982 are now worth a 10% premium over face value just for the metal they are made from. This applies to all wheat cents except the steel cents of 1943. This is a nice bonus to their collector value.

Something else to keep in mind is that we're getting close to the 100th anniversay of the Lincoln Cent. This is likely to cause a resurgence of collector interest in Lincoln cents, and it's even possible they may make a commemorative issue or change the design, like they did on the 50th anniversary, when they stopped making wheat cents and created the Memorial reverse.

Finally, it's possible that they may stop making cents altogether in the near future. It costs .8¢ to make one, and .16¢ each time it's counted, which means after a cent is handled twice, it has cost more than it's worth! Of course, if they do stop, then the Lincoln cents will be a completed series, like the Indian cents. Wouldn't you like to be able to buy a bagful of Indian cents for less than 4¢ each?

Remember, these are whole wheat cents, and help build strong bodies 12 ways. And if Wonder Bread doesn't have to back their claim, neither do I!

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