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 Replies: 12 / Views: 2,791 |
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Valued Member
United States
164 Posts |
i am starting to collect Lincoln cents more. want to find/buy/get 1974 aluminum penny. what is their value? I herd 'aluminum penny' has a 1974 aluminum penny (Hmmmmmm). were did you find it? a were to look?  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
You can't get one. There a couple in the Smithsonian, but that's all that are known to still exist, AFAIK.
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Forum Dad
 United States
24167 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
In retrospect, do you think they should've gone with aluminum--instead of eventually copper-plated zinc?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Hmmm, yeah, now that I think about it, I wonder why they didn't revive the idea of aluminum cents in 1982.
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Moderator
Australia
16837 Posts |
Quote:
In retrospect, do you think they should've gone with aluminum--instead of eventually copper-plated zinc? Well, aluminium is currently priced at $1.06/lb, or $2.33/kg, or 0.233 cents per gram. The 1974 aluminium cents weighed slightly less than 1 gram, so if my maths is correct, the mint could make $4.61 worth of cents out of a dollar's worth of raw aluminium. So yes, if they'd switched to aluminium back in 1974, you'd still have aluminium cents today, and nobody would be going around talking about scrapping the cent, because they'd still be profitable to make. Quote:
I wonder why they didn't revive the idea of aluminum cents in 1982 For the same reason they rejected the concept back in 1974: the perception that aluminium coins "look cheap". Mainly because, as I've just demonstrated, they actually are cheap. I don't think aluminium can be plated as nicely or cheaply as zinc or steel are, so you couldn't give them a pretty pretending-to-still-be-solid-copper finish. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
I understand the stigma of aluminum, but I think horribly corroded Zincolns are worse. "Cheap" as it is, Aluminum is actually quite durable, and hard oxidized surface forms quickly, inhibiting corrosion. There must be an alloy that adds some color without breaking the proverbial bank.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3640 Posts |
Ya, bring it on back. Save some bucks. Nice and light to carry
and will look better after a while in circ. and last a lot longer than the rotcolns. Maybe some kid will find some in the water 25 years from now with his metal detector. It will
still look good and be worth a few bucks. Too logical though
of an idea. The feds would not go along with it. Other countries have had them for years.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
It's pretty ironic that they always bow to vending machine makers, as if they didn't also make vending machines that work in other countries with all sorts of coins. I can't say I've ever seen a vending machine that takes pennies, other than the horsie ride at Meijer. They made the Sac dollars backwards compatible with the Susan B. for vending machines, but most don't take them anyway.
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Forum Dad
United States
24167 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
I can't say I've ever seen a vending machine that takes pennies, other than the horsie ride at Meijer. I'm old enough to remember penny gumball machines and "your weight for a penny" scales. Haven't seen either one for over twenty, maybe thirty, years. The Coin Community Coin Facts on this piece needs to be updated to mention that the Toven specimen was crossed over to a PCGS slab a few months after ICG slabbed it and it is now in a PCGS slab as MS-62. (The wear can clearly be seen on the coin in the ICG slab. I wonder what compensation PCGS would pay if it was sent in for grade review?) Edited by Conder101
08/24/2011 11:23 am
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1166 Posts |
I remember the gumball machines, as well and there were also the peanut machines with stale peanuts.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3640 Posts |
I doubt that anyone today would go ahead and make vendors
that pay out something for just one cent. Anyway, the older vending machines did not care what the object was that was put into the slot as long as it was the same size as the desired denom. Did not seem that long ago that we needed to use quarters to get just about anything from a machine either it be a vacuum, car wash or a coke etc. First the one cent (penny) No one really tried to make a fake for a machine. Not worth the time and effort except for the hard core cokers:) who would mess it up to make a dime slug. Then I used nickels only for making pay phone calls or for playing skee-ball. No sense in making those slugs as my grandmother always gave me rolls of them anyway :)
You could drill a dime and then thread it up and drop it down the slot on a payphone until you got a dial tone then just pull it back up. No more pay phones now. Quarter slugs could be made from electrical box punch outs. You could do pretty good for yourself back in the 50's,60's and 70's and really get a bank for your buck. Oh well, only fun now is if you find a few coins in the return tray of the banks coin counters.
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Replies: 12 / Views: 2,791 |
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Posted 08/23/2011 7:14 pm
