Need To Search 1000's Of Pennies

Do you know any coin collectors? You might sell the jugs to them—some of us enjoy looking through coins. I find it relaxing.

If you do decide to give them a quick look, get yourself a hands-free magnifier along these lines . You can rig it so you can view each coin comfortably (without slouching over them or something else that will give you neck or back strain over time) before adding it to the roll. Hand-rolling will take some time, but it's kind of a mindless thing you can do while watching TV, and it lets you take a quick look at each coin while preparing them for the bank.

I wouldn't linger too much over each coin, but familiarize yourself with what doubling and repunched mint marks look like, and maybe have one of these mats handy so you have a list of the key dates and major die varieties and errors to look for. Do it this way and you will not spend the rest of your days wondering whether you might have let a 1909S VDB slip through your fingers.

If you're not the type to worry about stuff like that and would rather go fast and easy, even if you pay a little fee for the convenience just take the jugs to the bank and use the coinstar machine.

Welcome to CC! Are these the big 15-20 gallon jugs?

I sorted about 6 of those giant water bottle jugs full of mixed coins many years ago for a friend. He said he started around 1975 with the jugs. It took me months! The others here are offering sage advice. I'll add this...

They made billions and billions of coins 1970-90 but the vast majority of MS examples suck. I only collect Lincolns so it was very difficult for me to search though the other coins so I went too quickly and probably missed some extraordinary coins. Learn what mint state coins look like and try to set those aside. You don't want to return some potential gem level coins to circulation.

That said, I did a thorough check of the Lincolns and found a BUNCH of amazing coins. Old stashes like this are normally a gold mine. The best of the coins was a mint state 1999 WAM (worth about $350). I also massively upgraded my Lincoln memorial BU roll set (a complete set of rolls from 1959 to 2008) and found many upgrade coins for my primary memorial collection.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you. TAKE YOUR TIME, LEARN WHAT TO LOOK FOR and don't throw away money. With a collection that big the odds are you'll find something worthwhile. GOOD LUCK!