Many people have jars, old coffee containers, cigar boxes, etc full with old pennies they accumulated over the years. In some cases, you may have inherited them. The question I often hear is, "Are they worth anything?" The brief answer is yes they are, if they are dated 1958 or before. The next question though is, "How much?"
That is always a tough question to answer. To answer that question, we must first discuss a little history. The Lincoln Cent has been around since 1909. That is over 100 years. In 1959, a new reverse of the coin was introduced. The reverse has the Lincoln Memorial on it. This is what you commonly see today and replaced the reverse that showed wheat stalks on each side of the reverse with the word "ONE CENT" in the center. Although there were new designs introduced in 2009 commemorating the 100 year anniversary, as of this writing, they are not yet widely circulated. Part of the reason is that many folks collected them. Also, there was a new reverse introduced in 2010, that you may begin seeing quite a bit of. they have a shield on the reverse.. Most Lincoln Memorial Cents and Shield Cents are worth one cent each.
One fact to note is that all those pennies, or cents, made from 1909 through 1958 were made of copper. If copper goes up in price, the base metal may be worth more than the numismatic value of many of these coins. In 1982 the Mint switched over from copper to a zinc cent coated with copper.
Back to the main idea. Pennies dated before 1959 are indeed worth more than face value. But they are not likely to make you affluent. During those 50 years Wheat Pennies, or more technically accurate Wheat Cents were made, many, many billions of them were made. In fact over 25 billion of them were constructed. How can anything that was assembled over 25 billion times be worth anything?
Well, truth be told, most wheat cents are only worth a few cents. They are so common, that if you had thousands of them lying around, the probability that you had a rarity is slim. Yes, even with that many. Most of the "rare" cents were identified long ago and pulled from circulation 50-75 years ago.
So if you have a few thousand cents lying around, where does this leave you? If you are looking to cash them in, your best bet is to speak to a coin dealer and get a quote. The reality is that most wheat cents are sold in bulk. It is simply not worth the time and trouble to go through each and every one of them for that rare chance you will find a rarity.
If you have only a smattering, such as a few hundred, you may just want to leave them in the coffee can and give them to a child who collects coins. The effort to sell them may not be worth it.
Of course, if you have a lot of time, you can get a book from the library and research each and every one of the coins you have to look for a rarity. You may not find one, but it is bargain-basement entertainment.
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