to search or not to search....that is a heck of a question...

Here is a question, and a thought for all the roll searchers out there. Do you roll search to find that elusive double die Lincoln, from 72; 83; 84; or 95? Do you spend you free time, on Saturdays and Sundays looking through all the nice rolls of Lincolns trying to find those elusive Wide AM?s from the 96; 98; 99; or year 2000? Or are you just pulling out the copper ones for later meltdown and that big profit when copper goes to $3.00 a pound? Those are the questions.

Now here are the thoughts. First let?s make some assumptions. There are about three rolls of cents to a pound. It will take the average person about 15 to 20 minutes to look through those three rolls of cents. Out of a roll of cents the average of pre 1982 (or copper) cents will be approximately 20. They will also find from five to ten 1983, 1984, and 1995 cents. With another ten to fifteen 1998, 1999, and 2000 cents. That will give us some totals for one hour of work at; 240 copper cents, 40 possible double dies, and 60 possible wide AM?s.

Using NGC stats, the only available to me, we will find that currently there are the following numbers of graded cents (all grades) for the different varieties, vs total POP.

1983 DDR 610 7,752,355,000

1984 DDO 394 8,151,079,000

1995 DDO 16,702 6,411,440,000

1998 WAM 201 5,032,155,000

1999 WAM 57 5,237,600,000

2000 WAM 635 5,503,200,000

This gives the possible odds of finding one of the above at:

1983 1 in 13,000,000

1984 1 in 21,000,000

1985 1 in 384,000

1998 1 in 25,000,000

1999 1 in 92,000,000

2000 1 in 9,000,000

Time spent to find One:

1983; 1984; 1995 9,600 hours

1998; 1999; 2000 150,000 hours

Now this doesn?t take into account luck, or the smiling of the Lady over your shoulder, but what is an hour of your time worth? Even if you are retired, as I am, that hour is worth something north of $10.00. Especially as the bank of those hours get smaller the older you are.

Something to think about? Some discussion needed. Or maybe you might want to rethink your spare time usage.

oshelt