Sharing my 100% Found in Change Wheaties

[hoard]

The photos of the album are tough but I am almost complete. I do not think I will ever finish this set by finding the missing pieces in loose change but I keep looking. This set was started sometime around 1974 or so the Whitman Folder Set last printed date was 1976 so that was when I put them in an album for the first time. Below the album pics are a couple of shots of the key date coins. I actually found more than one of some of the key date coins.

 

Anyway here is my favorite set because it only cost me $1.32 to put together.

 

[TomB]

That is outstanding!

How many cents do you think you went through each day or week back in the mid-70s to accumulate such a find?

[Bruceswar]

WOW! Nice all the keys from change!!! Sweet!

[hoard]

Not just then but even now. I have a list of the last few always at hand. To answer your question many thousands. It started on Saturday's after I helped clean my fathers store, that I was allowed to go through the pennies in the register. The staff was under strict instructions by the 9 year old to put all wheat pennies in the empty coin slot in the register. I would also go to the bank and just go through change by the roll and roll and roll and roll. It was alot of fun.

[Bruceswar]

sweet sounds like fun...!!

[HaydenTubbs]

Wow! That is one sweet collection,and a ton of history too.

[Hoot]

Truly astounding! Never had the luck of finding the keys in the days when my father would get bags of cents from the bank (1960's)! Great job!

 

Hoot

[Elcontador]

That's amazing stuff!

 

I started collecting as a kid in the 60s. Also, my father taught at a school, and if I didn't pi** him off during the week, he'd take me over there on the weekend and let me go through the vending machines (I think collecting coins was the only hobby / avocation of mine he's ever liked). I'd replace a coin I liked with one of equal value from my own allowance. At some point, he mentioned to some students that I collected coins, and one kid gave him an 1831 Dime in AG 3 for my collection (still have it).

 

I found virtually all Mercs, except for the 16 D, 21 P & D & overdate this way, and many of the buffs as well. The most expensive coins I found were a 32 S Quarter in F 12 & a 24 S Nickel in the same grade.

 

It was neat because I never knew what I might find next. I actually found a few IHCs, Liberty Nickels, dateless SLQs & a few Barber coins.

[EZ_E]

Wow, hoard, fantastic thread! I remember you mentioning before that you had found all of the key dates in circulation but I am still just as amazed hearing it again! Of course, you slimmed down the odds by your tireless search but I would imagine that the odds were still pretty slim finding the '09 S VDB, '14 D, '22 plain and the '31 S.

 

I'm impressed!

[physics-fan3.14]

you found a 1909 S VDB in change? Where do you shop?!?

[John Martinez]

I started my collection in the '60's however, the album I was using was not back to 1909, so I've got many holes to still fill. Plan to do them in pocket change where I can. I just started last year since the the '60's and transfered them to an album that has the full date range. Good luck in your hunt.

[McKinley-migration]

wow... that's almost unbelievable

 

it's hard to imagine those old keys ever being in circulation at all

 

 

$1.32.... not bad.....

[hoard]

It was a long time ago. My fathers store was in an old mill town with a high population of elderly. It was not at all uncommon for people to come and pay with silver certificates mixed in with their regular bills, wheat cents by the roll, mercury dimes, and the silver halves were also very common. I would say that the bulk of this collection was found because people who had stashed their coins away for years were simply spending them. I just happen to be looking.

 

I never did find a 55 double die but boy did I look.

 

I mostly posted the photos because I know I lot of people start out just looking through coins in change, just today I was handed a 1946 D in VF condition in change, and thought it would motivate some younger collectors and make older collectors remember the thrill of finding that "old" coin in change.

 

Thanks for everyones comments.

[Wihlborg]

It is quite an accomplishment to put a set like that together from coins pulled from circulation. I offer my congratulations to you.

 

Your story reminds me of how I began collecting. When I was a boy, my grandmother bought me a few coin folders and she would let me go through all her change every time she would go shopping and let me take whatever coins I didn’t already have to fill the folders.

 

This was in the sixty’s, and I was able to pull some real nice coins from her purse, but I never did find any keys. I’ll tell you what though, I think of those times spent with my grandmother looking through her change often, and the fact that I never did find a key date coin does not diminish those memories one iota.

 

John

[James_OldeTowne]

What an astounding achievement!!!! I am far more impressed by your efforts than I would be by a power-buyer with dollars to burn on pop-top coins!

 

A SENSATIONAL thread!!!!!

 

 

James

[physics-fan3.14]

just today I was handed a 1946 D in VF condition in change, and thought it would motivate some younger collectors and make older collectors remember the thrill of finding that "old" coin in change.

 

I'll admit, sometimes I "spike" my pocket change. When I'm going through my pocket change I will often throw in a handful of extra wheaties and return them to circulation. Nothing valuable, usually just late forties and fifties. These are ones I got as extras in some Ebay deal, or somehow or other just accumulated them. It gives me a sort of thrill to think of some young collector finding a few of these wheaties.