Box 13 – Coin Roll Hunting $25 in Pennies

I’m Dave Gates and this article series documents my experience coin roll hunting pennies. I initially started coin roll hunting in November of 2017.

After a long break, I’ve decided to get back into the swing of things. It’s a lazy summer day, Friday July 16, 2021 and I’m searching through pennies. Box 13 was a big dud. Continue reading for the results of this hunt.

Goals for coin roll hunting

Please read my inaugural coin roll article for my goals and thought process. Below is the short version.

1. To have some fun, stay productive and keep busy.
2. Treasure Hunting. Sort of fills that Indiana Jones wanna-be character. Finding treasure is always fun.
3. To build up a copper bullion portfolio. There’s always room for more bullion in my portfolio.

So here is what I found from my thirteenth box of coin roll hunting $25 in pennies.

• $.27 of copper, what a complete dud.
• (0) random wheat pennies.
• (0) Canadian pennies.
• $24.73 of other newer zinc coins which I will return to the bank.

I’m lucky the bank I use has a coin counting machine when returning the zinc pennies, so this won’t cost me. Some banks charge a 10% fee on the amount counted. I believe vending machines like Coin Star are similar.

In fact one reason for starting this project was to keep my cost as minimal as possible. If I had to pay for returning the rejects I don’t think I’d be as agreeable to this project.

Once I found out the coins were mostly new, I brought them back to the bank thinking they could take back the entire box. But I was told once it leaves the bank, all the rolls would have to be opened and then counted in the machine. WOW, what a waste, but it is what it is.

CONCLUSION

What a disappointment. Note to self, and future me, this is a box of pennies I had acquired in 2021 post coin shortage. With everything going on in the world, I decided to try and pickup where I left off. Last week I got this box, brought it home and opened it up. Since the boxes are all completely sealed when you get them from the bank, It’s impossible to know the contents, or even peak at the ends. I had no idea it was brand new box of pennies.

I really wish I could get pennies in the old style boxes with holes in them. It was much easier to pick out boxes of circulated coins.

Little did I know the this entire box was almost entirely brand new 2021 coins. This doesn’t help this project at all, and I’m wondering if I’ll be able to get any more circulated coins. It’s going to be a long project from here if all I’m pulling is about a quarter from each box. I may have to stop for a while to see if the coin circulations catches up.

It may be time to start visiting some other local banks to see if I can get circulated coins. I hope this is not the end of my coin roll hunting, but we will have to keep an eye on what we get. What are you finding in your area? Are all your boxes filled with newer coinage?

Thank you,

Dave