Ridiculous Price For Wheat Cents

[GB_Amateur]

Some of you likely saw this Google ad (possibly even here):

A pound of mint state 95% copper Lincolns contains about 145 cents, so even with considerable wear you're getting well under 200 coins with this 'deal'.  At the current $3.56 copper spot a cent with not much wear contains about $0.023 worth of copper.   So I guess the price reflects the collector value -- over 15 times the bullion value?

Give me a break.

I recall years ago (and maybe something equivalent still goes on) that $50 bags (5000 cents) would sell for $60-$75 unsearched.  This was in the 1960's so well over half would likely be Wheats.  And even then I questioned what 'unsearched' meant.  So you were paying about 1.5 times face value, not 40 times face value, and (if you believed them) you had chances to find a scarce date.  What are the chances of finding a scarce date if you bought thirty 1 lb bags (about $50 face) from Macy's, for nearly 2 grand?

On a side note, I think it's still illegal to melt 95% copper cents, although who is really going to prosecute?  Bottom line: melt/bullion value is all that 99% of Wheat cents carry, if even that.

[Digalicious]

"Unsearched" means they know some could be valuable. So ya, they've been searched.

[midalake]

On 10/6/2023 at 1:10 PM, GB_Amateur said:

So you were paying about 1.5 times face value, not 40 times face value, and (if you believed them) you had chances to find a scarce date.  What are the chances of finding a scarce date if you bought thirty 1 lb bags (about $50 face) from Macy's, for nearly 2 grand?

It's Macy's. What do you expect.............🤣 

[jim tn]

I've got a guy that pays 3 cents apiece for dug ones and I am happy to get it. HH jim tn