Lucky 1964 find

[Regis44]

My wife and I were going through large jar of misc pocket change because of that MAD post. Lo and behold among shinning 2000-2006 pennies was this beautiful 1964. It has about the same color as a new 2005 or 6. Could not believe it. Can anyone clue me in on how something this nice could be in circulation so long. The reverse color is close to actual (on my monitor anyway). Thanks, Regis

[DaveG]

I'm willing to bet that this cent has spent almost all of its life in coin jars just like yours, where the piles of coins on top of it kept it from turning brown.

 

Since the Coin Star machines became widely distributed several years ago, I've been seeing a lot of very lightly circulated older coins in my change, as more and more people empty their change jars (some of the ones I've seen are pretty big, too!) into the Coin Star machines.

[Regis44]

That does makes sense about people spending more change from long ignored jars of coins. This one is almost proof like in that you can read letters in the reflection of the fields about like you can on a new cent.

[jtryka]

I think it probably was in a BU roll that was laying around for a long time and finally spent. In the early 60s, BU rolls were all the rage, and prices were bid to huge extremes and when the bubble burst many people were left with hundreds of BU rolls of coins, many of which were likely spent over the years.

[Die Varieties]

Regis: Sometimes I get lucky and get circulated rolls from my banks that have old wrapping paper. I remember one batch of rolls the latest date was 1974. There were a lot of nice BU coins in those wrapped up rolls. I would guess they had been sitting in a jar, jug, or something, and the person decided to take em to the bank.

 

I tend to see this happen more often during two times of the year -- that being summer and the holidays. Simply because people start turning in coins for extra cash to take on summer vacation or for holiday spending.

 

Hmmm .. were hitting the start of summer vacation time. Could be your seeing the coins turned in for vacation mad money.

 

Just a thought ...

[Elbesaar]

My old jars are filled with these ... seriously, I know I dumped a few rolls of 1962's in one of them years ago. I'm sure I have a fist full of 1964's in there too. One of these days, I'll go to a local supermarket who has CoinStar and get rid of them.