# A penny here, and a penny there



## 12345Michael54321 (Mar 6, 2008)

Today, I made a minor purchase at the local Staples, paid cash (a custom well on its way to becoming archaic, it seems, but that's not what this is about), and found a wheat cent in my change.

A wheat cent is a US penny made from 1909 to 1958. The nickname derives from the fact that stalks of wheat are pictured on the "tails" side of the penny. I'll provide a picture of a wheat cent at the bottom of this post.

When I was a kid - like, in the early 1970s - wheat cents weren't particularly uncommon. No, they didn't account for most of the pennies you'd get in change, but they were sufficiently common that if you had a pocketful of change (and credit card usage being enormously less routine back then, if you did some shopping over the course of the day, you probably did accumulate a pocketful of change), there might well have been a wheat cent or two among the coins.

These days, I can go literally months without finding any wheat cents in my change. My last one prior to today was back in February. (It was a 1943 steel cent, btw.) And bear in mind, because I like paying cash for minor purchases, grocery shopping, etc., most days I accumulate at least some pocket change; it's not like I pay cash once every other week, and go months without getting back a wheat cent. (I'm not really a numismatist, but I do at least glance at any coins I get in change, and I'd tend to spot a wheat cent.)

It's not that the penny I go today at Staples is valuable or anything. It's a common 1957 circulated penny, albeit in surprisingly fine condition. I suspect it's worth a few cents, at most.

But I rather like knowing that some coins minted back when my father (or grandfather - I've received a couple of 1909 pennies in change over the years) was a kid are still circulating, and haven't become rare collectibles.

Anyone here receive a wheat cent in change lately? I'm not talking about coin collecting and finding hundreds of wheat cents in the sack of 50,000 unsorted pennies you got off eBay, or something like that. No, I mean anybody pay cash for some minor item lately and notice a wheat cent among your change?

Oh, on a related note, over the past decade, I've found 2 Mercury dimes in my change.








-- 
Michael


----------



## ZachGranstrom (Mar 11, 2010)

I just went through my change bowl and found two, yes I said two, wheat pennies. (I also found a Canadian penny.)


----------



## Peak and Pine (Sep 12, 2007)

I just found two pennies in my Wheaties, does that count?. Swallowed them actually. Now I don't feel so good.

Michael, good piece. Nicely written. (For those not aware, the steel penny was spit out during WWII to conserve on copper. Also, Lincoln had no beard on the steel penny, to conserve on hair.)


----------



## burnedandfrozen (Mar 11, 2004)

As a cashier I see 'em from time to time. They are a little more common then $2.00 bills.


----------



## Cruiser (Jul 21, 2006)

I've got a big jar full of them somewhere. Back in the 60's I started putting my wheat pennies and buffalo nickels in two big jars. Now I'm wondering where those jars are.

I also had the bubble gum cards for the 1960 New York Yankees starting line up and almost all of the Superman and Batman comic books from the late 50's. If I had been smart those are what I would have saved.

Cruiser


----------



## Beresford (Mar 30, 2006)

Related to that, when I was in L.A. last week, I got my first of the brand-new "shield" pennies as change. I did a double-take because I hadn't heard of them before and they haven't made it out here to where I live in the colonies.










The rarest coin I ever got in change, and I'm not sure how I got it, was a $5 American Eagle gold piece. I must have been given it by someone thinking it was a dime, but I didn't realize it till I got home from the shopping center and took the change out of my pockets.


----------



## Relayer (Nov 9, 2005)

I didn't realize we had so many recent new editions of the penny, as pictured below.

I just check my change and found one that, on the reverse, has Lincoln taking a break from splitting logs and reading a book.


----------



## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

What gives with all the crazy coin lately??


----------



## JerseyJohn (Oct 26, 2007)

I've heard that the wheat cents have about three cents worth of copper in them at today's prices, which would account for their rarity. When I was a kid, I started trying to get one of each date, and my father took over after I got married. I now have boxes and boxes of them, but neither of us every got the rare 1909S-VDB or the 1914D. I have at least one (and in some cases, whole rolls) of most dates and mint marks.


----------



## andy b. (Mar 18, 2010)

I received a wheat cent a week or two ago in change. The last one before that was probably earlier this year.
I DO have to search for one of those "hairless Lincolns" though. They sound pretty rare.

Andy B.


----------



## ajo (Oct 22, 2007)

Cruiser said:


> and almost all of the Superman and Batman comic books from the late 50's. If I had been smart those are what I would have saved.
> 
> Cruiser


I had a very extensive collection of Marvel comics from the late 60' to end of the 70' inclunding a complete Howard The Duck series. It reminds me of the tshirt "I'd be a millionare if my mother hadn't given away my comic collection."


----------

