See what VALUABLE COINS Josh found in a cup that was left in a storage unit since 1993… Many cool finds!
⚡TIMESTAMPS FROM THE VIDEO⚡
00:00 INTRO: Valuable Coins Found In An Old Storage Unit
00:37 Looking for Copper Pennies, Wheat Cents, Silver Coins
00:51 Coin Supplies That Will Come In Useful
02:41 How To Sort Pennies [CARD!]
03:12 Wheat Cents To Keep
03:54 Why Coin Searching Is Like Fishing!
04:09 Which Penny Years Are Copper Pennies
04:57 How To Tell Copper vs Zinc 1982 Pennies
07:03 Canadian Coins To Keep
08:33 Which Nickel Years To Keep
09:04 Which Penny Years To Keep
09:40 1972 Doubled Die Pennies Explained
11:12 What To Look For When Searching Through Coins
15:52 Are “Old Coins” Worth More Than Face Value?
16:43 What To Look For On 1982 & 1983 Quarters
18:20 What To Look For On 1965 Dimes & Quarters
19:40 1990 Penny WIth No Mintmark
22:05 Weighing Pennies To Determine If Copper vs Zinc
22:24 Weighing Dimes To Determine If Silver
25:53 What To Look For On 1972 Pennies (Doubled Dies)
27:14 Which Penny Years To Look For Doubled Dies
27:36 What To Look For On 1992 Pennies (Close AM Error)
29:59 SUMMARY: The Valuable Old Coins I Found
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey everybody! This is Josh at the Fun Times Guide. And today we have a really cool coin search video. So my sister-in-law who cleans out storage units handed me this wire mesh pen cup of coins. Now she explained that about two-thirds of the coins (the ones I guess toward the bottom of this pen cup) were actually already in this pen cup and came from a storage unit that was recently abandoned.
But the twist to this little pen cup of coins is that about one-third of the coins — the top third I gather — were from a storage unit that have been all but forgotten about since 1993!
So, we could find a lot of copper. Maybe we’ll find some wheat cents. Maybe we’ll find a silver coin or two. I have no idea!
So, let’s go ahead and dive into this pen cup of coins together and see what we find…
All righty. So before we begin this video, let’s start with the basics. I have my 10X coin loupe — we’re looking for mint marks, die varieties, errors, stuff like that.
I have here my trusty gram coin scale — which will help us determine zinc versus copper, 1982 pennies, maybe a silver error among 1965 Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters.
I have here a fairly recent edition of the “red book” or A Guide Book of United States Coins — which I like to have on hand for mintage figures… for a basic idea on values and things like that.
And of course we have our wire mesh pen cup of coins.
So, as mentioned earlier in this video… this is a pen cup that contains coins from 2 different storage units. Now, when it was handed to me, the bottom two-thirds of this pen cup were coins from a recently abandoned storage unit. And the top third are coins from a storage unit that had been essentially abandoned since 1993.
Now, in the process of receiving this coin cup from my sister-in-law and bringing it home, I think some of the coins were jostled together — but I have not at all gone through this pen cup. I have no idea what’s actually in here except for what I see right on top. So, I will be as surprised as you as we go through this cup of coins together.
So, let’s start! Let’s go ahead and dump out the contents of this wire mesh pen cup. A lot of coins here. And see what’s going on.
Now, I’d love to know… what do you do before YOU start going through any kind of vessel of coins — be they rolls, boxes of coins, pen cups of coins. Do you have a sorting process? Do you like to sort pennies from nickels and dimes and quarters — and maybe halves and dollars? Let me know in the comments below.
As you see here, I just kind of start with the whole shebang to get an idea as to what’s going on. Get a lay of the land. I already see a LOT of copper in here.
Let’s go ahead and kind of zoom in a little bit on some of this just so we have an idea as to what’s going on here.
Like I see here… this is a 19… What is this here?… Ahhh! Yes, we start off with a wheat cent… a 1957. You see that?… Lincoln wheat cent. That is a wonderful way to start a coin search video! And probably indicative of the fact that again about a third of this lot of coins comes from a storage unit that had not been visited apparently in like some 30 years.
So I’m hoping for… Oh, a zipper pull. See that? That’s kind of a cool find. Not a numismatic find, but nevertheless a really cool one. So we’ll put that aside in our “odds & ends” category — next to our “wheat cent” category.
And let’s keep searching here. Yeah, I you know… this is so much fun to me! I’ve likened before going through rolls of coins and vessels like fishing. You know, you drop a line in the water, you have no idea what you’re going to get — if anything at all.
We have a 1979 Lincoln penny. That’s a copper keeper!
For those who don’t know, pennies that were struck before 1982 — in the Lincoln Memorial series are all bronze (so 95% copper). Those struck in ’82 were both bronze and zinc. So you have to kind of weigh those — or know what they look like or feel like — to be able to tell them apart. And then from ’83 on, they’re made from copper-coated zinc.
1968. What is that mint mark? That is a Denver. All right! we’ll put that over here in our “copper keeper” section. Yeah, lots of copper!… 1976. That’s a good… This is a good start! I’m really pretty enthused by this.
What do we have here? A 19… can you see in the video? 1982. Okay, as mentioned a minute ago, ’82 was the year that the mint made both — bronze AND zinc pennies. Now, those of us who have been handling coins for a long time can usually tell a copper versus zinc ’82 by the way it looks & the way it feels.
If you drop an ’82 penny on a hard surface like a table and there’s a slight “ring” to it, it’s a copper penny. If it “clicks” when it drops and hits the surface, it’s a zinc penny.
I will use the scale here to, you know, find out if it really is a copper or zinc. Copper pennies weigh around 3.1 grams. A zinc penny around 2.5 grams. For now, I’ll put it in a little pile by itself among 82 pennies we can go ahead and weigh later.
And I see a 1978. Right? NO, sorry! 1970 Denver penny. We know that’s a “copper keeper” for sure!
’61 Denver. Yeah, this is really pretty cool!
1970…. Is that an S or a D? That’s a D. Okay — still worth keeping though.
1973… Yeah, it’s amazing the amount of copper in here already. It’s also a Denver.
So, I’m guessing we’re in the 30-year-old section of the pen cup. Lots of zinc right here. These are all…
This is a copper one for sure. Right? Yep… 1980. That is a “copper keeper”.
’83. Now, I can tell a lot of these pennies are zinc, and that’s okay. They’re still spendworthy — they can be used to buy almost anything you want.
1979 Denver. Can you see that right there? Okay. Very good. Very good. Josh likes to see copper!
I’d love to see some silver, too. But.. Oh! Here’s a kind of a cool find. This is a Canadian penny. It is a 1999.
Cool find. All right, we’ll put that over here. Where should this go? We’ll go ahead and put it in its own little pile for now. Well it’s not… It’s not a zipper pull, so it’s definitely a coin. But we’re not going to put it in the “wheat cent” pile or the “copper” or the “’82”. It’s going to have its own little category. So any “royal” coins you find will go in that little section there.
Let’s continue… 1975 is a “copper keeper”.
19… What is this?… 63? Is that what you see? Yep, that’s what I see.
They say I have 20/20 vision. And sometimes looking at coins, I wonder. No, not really.
1975… okay. Let’s see here…
Tell you what… I’m gonna make this a little easier for all of us. I’m gonna separate out quickly what appears to be copper and zinc. You notice the zinc. Here’s copper. I’ll look at the date later.
Let’s see here… We have… That’s copper. Because when you have a lot of coins like this… That’s an ’82. We’ll put it in the “weigh” pile.
That’s a 1964 nickel. So, it’s old, but it really isn’t worth more than face value at this point.
Now, I’m not sure what you do. Do you keep… What year do you stop keeping nickels? I tend to stop at 1959. So, anything before 1960, I’ll keep.
That’s an ’82. We’ll weigh that.
But yeah, I keep all nickels from before 1960. (This is 1980.) But what do YOU do? Do you keep nickels at all? And if so, do you keep up to a certain date? And what is that date that you look for when looking through nickels and such? I’d love to know in the comments below.
I’m also curious about your thoughts on… what you keep among pennies. Do you keep copper pennies? Do you keep wheat cents? See, I keep all those things. I’d love to know what your thoughts are on the matter. That’s kind of a controversial topic among some circles.
You get those who don’t keep copper pennies because they just don’t think it’s worth, you know, looking for them and hanging on to them. But I mean, they are worth MORE than face value. Right now, a copper penny is worth about 3 to 4 cents — for its metal value.
All right, here’s a ’72 penny. We’re going to look later and see if it’s a doubled die or not. I don’t know at this moment because I didn’t look closely enough.
1980 Denver. We’ll put it… We’ll just go through… Like I said, look for copper. I’m going to pull out all the copper coins (or copper pennies).
That’s an ’82.
So far, no signs of silver at all. Lots of quarters and dimes, though. So my sister-in-law will have some spending money to enjoy. But, will she have any silver? Let’s see…
Moving along here. Do you seem to see any copper that I’m missing perhaps as I go through this pile quickly? Let me know. I need to know! I need “eyes in the skies” here. Or “eyes on the screen”.
That’s an ’82. I guarantee you it’s zinc. But I’m going to go ahead and weigh it just to make sure.
’72… We’ll see if that’s a doubled die later on in this video.
’79… But we’ll put it in the big copper pile for now. Yeah.
And there is a lot of zinc in here. I mean, I’m not surprised by that. But… I’ll tell you what, that little start though! All those copper coins and that wheat cent to kick things off… that was really exciting! And that everybody is WHY I do what I do.
I don’t do this to become rich. I don’t ever expect to become rich looking through coins. And I would hope that when you go through coins… Well, we all… I mean, I’m sure many of us… I can’t say all of us. I know many of us would love to find a really valuable coin in like, you know, a coin roll or a pen cup of coins. But the reality is this is how most coin searches go. What you’re watching here is an honest to God realistic version of what looking through coins is.
You know, you find some cool things. You don’t typically find super valuable items. But half of the fun, at least to me, is the thrill of the search.
Let me know in the comments below why it is YOU go through coins? Or why you enjoy going through coins? Or, why you enjoy watching coin searching videos like this?
This looks like it’s a copper nickel clad dime, but I’m going to weigh it just to make sure.
We are already well more than halfway through the cursory look through all these coins and so far there have been some cool finds. I mean, there really have been. We have found a lot of copper.
Let’s see if that’s a 1972 double die or not. We’ll see in a little bit.
What is this? 1970. It looked a lot older than 1970. Then again, I began collecting coins back in the early 90s. Back when 1970s pennies still looked fairly new in a lot of cases. Not anymore!
I still come across SOME uncirculated looking 1960s and ’70s pennies. But they’re getting so hard to find these days in circulation. I remember they were really easy to find years ago — especially in rolls.
Okay. 1973.
Okay. Please tell me! Did I miss anything obvious? Did I miss any copper or apparent silver?
Well, apparently I missed a ’63 copper penny. It’s going to go over here.
All right, everybody. I’m going to go ahead… And we’ll start going through those copper pennies together to see what’s in there. We’re going to weigh the 1982 pennies. We’re going to look for any doubled dies on the ’72 pennies that we came across. And finally do one more glance through and see if we have any… (That’s an ’82.) Any silver among these coins.
All righty. So, now it’s time to go ahead and go through our “hold-asides” and “keepers”.
First of all, again, we have this zipper pull — which isn’t really a numismatic item, but still kind of cool. Our 1999 Canadian cent right here — that is definitely a keeper. A 1957 Lincoln wheat cent — again, another really cool coin.
Okay.. we have the copper pennies that I had identified by date. We have here some 1982 pennies. I think most of them were copper. We’re going to weigh them in a minute and see.
We have here copper pennies I had NOT identified by date yet, though you can see them clear as day as I can… At least part of them — some of them — from the mid-70s.
Two coins that I wanted to weigh to verify if they were copper or silver. This penny is very corroded, and I can’t really tell without really looking at it with a loupe what year it is. That would of course tell us if it’s copper or zinc. But we can weigh it, and in a heartbeat find out if it IS copper or zinc.
And the same with this Roosevelt dime — I know it’s a Roosevelt dime, but I can’t tell you if it’s… I think it’s copper nickel. The edge appears to have copper, but the coin is so corroded, I just want to double check and see.
And finally, we have… Actually, two “final things”… We have here these coins I want to talk about in just a second. This is a little pile of zinc pennies from years during which there were well-known doubled dies. And I wanted to see if any of them are in fact doubled dies.
So, let’s go ahead. I do want to talk about these coins since I introduced them… These coins are NOT worth more than face value. I want to tell you why they aren’t — and why I pulled these coins out.
I get a lot of questions at The Fun Times Guide about kind of “old looking” coins. Like a 1966 Washington quarter right here. Or a 1967 Washington quarter. And they want to know if they’re worth more than face value. And the short answer is NO.
I know these are old coins. I mean now coins from the 1960s are over 60 years old. And so there’s the assumption that older coins are worth more money. And a lot of them are. But these are still clad quarters. And while they are approaching 60 years old in this case (as of this video’s taping) and will soon be OVER 60 years old, these are still worth just face value. They are made from copper nickel clad. So they’re worth 25 cents! But they are not worth more than face value — especially because of the fact that they’re made from A) clad and B) they are well worn. So, these are “spendworthy” coins. They’ll go here in the big pile of coins that will be up to my sister-in-law to decide how she wants to spend them.
You see here a 1982 quarter. I have written in the past, and it is true that many 1982 quarters (both Philadelphia and Denver) ARE worth more than face value, even if lightly worn. It’s because these were struck during a very severe recession. And no Mint Sets were being struck (or rather produced) in 1982 or also ’83.
And thus, because few people were saving quarters to begin with during this recession AND the fact there were no mint sets officially made by the Mint during this time… Uncirculated ’82 and ’83 quarters are a little scarcer than other quarters from years in that period.
And there is in fact a very small premium on LIGHTLY worn ’82 and ’83 quarters. However, this one… I mean, there is some feather detail on the breast of the eagle there. I would say this is a moderately worn ’82 Denver quarter. You might get 30 cents for this quarter from some dealers. But to me, it’s not worth the time and the gas money to go shop this around and see if you can get a nickel or two premium. So, while this coin COULD garner a very small premium, I’m going to call it a “spendworthy” coin for the sake of practicality. I just don’t think it’s worth trying to get top dollar (or top cent) for this 1982 Denver quarter. So, I’m going to go ahead uh and put it into the “spendworthy” population here.
Okay. Now… kind of to the point of the quarters… I get people who ask about 1965 Roosevelt dimes. Are they worth more than face value? The stock answer is NO. A copper nickel clad dime is not worth more than face value. However, there are some well-known error strikings (transitional errors) in which the ’65 Roosevelt dime and Washington quarters were struck on 90% silver planchets.
However, I can see from the side of this dime here, this is a copper nickel clad dime. So, this is NOT worth more than face value. It too will go in the “spendworthy” population.
Now, I had asked you earlier about nickels that you keep. What year do you stop keeping Jefferson nickels? This is a ’64. I do not personally keep ’64 nickels because these are very common. To me, they’re not really old enough to keep. At least not yet anyway — even though they are now over 60 years old.
I’d love to know in the comments below if you would keep a ’64 Jefferson nickel — or if you have a certain year or decade that you stop keeping them.
For me, that cutoff is 1960. So, in other words… a pre-1960 nickel, I’ll keep. One from 1960 or later, I will not keep. And then so this will also go into “spendworthy”.
Then there is this 1974 Jefferson nickel. It is NOT worth more than face value. But I wanted to show it to you because it’s… to me it’s just kind of… I don’t know if it’s funny or not… but it’s crazy how OLD 1970s and even some 1980s nickels are starting to look now.
30 years ago, this would have been likely how a 1940s or 50s nickel would have looked. And now this is a 1974 nickel. And I swore from the moment I saw Monticello on the back.. I’m like, “Ah, here’s 1958 nickel.” I flip it over and it’s 1974! It’s just CRAZY how later 20th century nickels are looking older and older! So it’s worth face value. But I just wanted to show you I think it’s striking to me how old some of these nickels are starting to look from the 1970s and ’80s.
Before we move on to these other valuable coins… or coins that could be valuable… I want to show you this 1990 penny WITHOUT a mint mark. Can you see it? I know that the date looks kind of obscure to you, but that is a 1990 penny.
A lot of people ask me about 1990 pennies with no mint mark. And they ask me about them because they know that a 1990 No S penny is worth more than face value. They know that it is an error. However, this is not a 1990 No S penny. Yes… there’s no “S” on this penny. But it is a Philadelphia-struck 1990 business strike cent worth 1 cent — it’s worth face value.
The only 1990 no mintmark pennies worth a lot of money are the ones that hail from Proof Sets. And they will look a whole lot different than this! They’ll have very shiny surfaces, frosted devices, or like a frosted looking Lincoln with frosted lettering. This is just an ordinary 1990 Philadelphia Lincoln cent worth face value.
So, I want to show you what a 1990 penny with no mint mark generally looks like. You’re going to find a lot of these. These are NOT the 1990 No S penny that is worth a lot of money. And this too will, thus, go into the “spendworthy” pile.
Now… time for some fun!
Let’s go ahead and see what these two coins are here. This… I think it’s copper. I don’t really know though. It’s kind of hard to tell. Let’s see if it weighs 3.1 or 2.5 grams. Oh! That is a zinc penny. It weighs 2.5 grams. We know it is zinc. That will go in “spendworthy”. Although that’s a pretty nasty looking coin.
And then we have here a Roosevelt dime. This is also… This is a clad. Okay. So, that’s also “spendworthy”. I mean, the back… I think looks a little silvery. But the moment I saw the edge, I thought, “Oh, that’s copper nickel clad!” But I wanted to make sure. So, that’s also “spendworthy”.
Now, let’s weigh our 1982 pennies. I think most of these are copper. We’re going to find out in a second what these actually are. I think… Mmm… Hear that? I think… I don’t know. It’s kind of ringing, but you know what? It just feels like a zinc penny to me. Let me see what this is. Yep, it’s zinc! 2.5 grams. So, this will go in our “spendworthy” pile.
All right. This one, I almost GUARANTEE you is bronze! 3.1… Okay, that’s a “copper keeper”.
This one, I think that’s copper. Tell me in the comments if you can be able to determine a copper versus zinc penny just by the way it feels in your hand?
That’s bronze. I’d love to know how YOU ascertain the copper or zinc composition of your ’82 pennies. It’s also bronze.
I think… I think that’s zinc. I think that’s zinc, folks. Let’s see. No, I was wrong. That’s copper. See, I can be fooled sometimes.
1982 Denver. This is a “large date” 1982 Denver penny. So, while I’m pretty sure it’s copper, it is not the rare 1982-D small date penny. It’s a bronze.
Okay. Now, let’s go ahead and see what we have here among our “copper keepers” for dates… ’63, 1980, ’74 Denver, ’79, ’74, ’73, ’64, ’68 Denver.
Let’s see if this ’72 is a double die.
There’s an ’81. Can you see that? ’74, ’80 Denver, 1977.
Is that a 1969? Is that 69? Let me get my loupe out and see. Can you see? The glare is so weird here in this position — I’m sorry. That’s a Denver. That was a toughy to see, folks. I know. I’m sorry.
’73. Here’s a ’72 I want to see if it’s a doubled die.
’74… Another ’72… Is that a double die?
Sticky looking 1960… What year is that? Eight. That’s 1968 penny.
’77…’80… And this is a… Ooh, what year do you think this one is? Let’s see.
1979. Can you see, folks? I have to perfect the way I look through a coin loop with a camera. There we go! See… ’79.
Okay, so these are all verified “copper keepers”, but aren’t terribly valuable.
Now, let’s see if these 1972 pennies are indeed doubled dies…
What are we looking for on a 1972 double die, you might ask? Well, we’re looking for doubling in the date. Okay? The motto “in God we trust”. And in the legend “Liberty”.
So, let’s go ahead and see what’s going on here. I don’t see any doubling. Can you see here? You probably can’t tell as well in the loupe the way I have it situated here with the camera… But, there is no doubling…
…on this coin. I just double checked it, too. We know that’s not a doubled die. No doubling there. Mmmm… I need to double check this one.
Let me check the “Liberty”.
Do you see? I see no doubling on this. So, these three are really cool 1972 pennies, but they’re not doubled dies.
Now, I also pulled aside here a few coins that could be candidates for doubling. We have here a 1995 penny, an ’83 which has (not maybe this one, but)… ’83 is known for having reverse doubling on some. We have an ’84 which could have a doubled ear. Another ’83.
And then a 1992 penny… I have this held aside to see if it is a Close AM. Now, what that means is at the base of the letters “A” and “M” in “America” on the reverse… if they appear to be touching, it’s called a Close AM. It’s a very rare transitional variety. But as we see here, the “A” and “M” are NOT touching. So, this is not a Close AM. And this is a “spendworthy” penny. I’ll put it over here.
There we go.
All right, let’s see what we have here. I’m going to double-check quickly and see if these are any errors.
We’ll go ahead and start with the ’83.
Let’s see if there’s any doubling.
I don’t know if you can see this very well or not. I don’t think you can. Maybe you can. But I see no signs of doubling. I’m going to double check with my own eye. Nope! “Spendworthy”.
Is there a doubled ear on this one? I can tell off the bat. This is NOT a doubled ear. You would see an extra earlobe on this one if it were. This is a “spendworthy” 84.
’83… Let’s see if this has any doubling on it. I see none. Tell me what you see…
None! This is a “spendworthy” ’83.
Another ’84… Which… tell me what you see… but I don’t see any doubling on the lobe at all. This is also a “spendworthy” ’84 penny.
On the 1985s, you’re looking for marked doubling in the legend “Liberty” and “in God we trust”.
The date also shows some doubling, some shift.
I’m going to double check these with my own eye. Also, please tell me if you think you see doubled dies on these 1995s.
I just double-checked. No doubling! So, these are NOT doubled dies. But they are “spendworthy”.
So, we wind up here with not a bad find. I mean, we have what? A couple dozen copper pennies, a really cool wheat cent, a Canadian cent. And hey… have a broken zipper? Maybe I can fix it!
Let’s go ahead and get the totals on what we actually came across today here. Well, overall, that was a pretty good day.
We came across a 1957 Lincoln wheat cent. Pardon my copper and silvery colored fingers right now. A 1999 Canadian cent. We came across 46 copper pennies. That’s almost a full roll of copper pennies! And $34.52 in spending money for my sister-in-law to enjoy on whatever she pleases.
She also has a lot of copper pennies now and a wheat cent, Canadian cent, and oh, by the way… a zipper pull as well.
So, I’d love to know in the comments below what you would have kept that maybe I didn’t keep. Or what you wouldn’t have kept.
But again, I appreciate your time. Thank you for watching this video. If you like it, go ahead and share it, subscribe to our channel, and most of all, know that I appreciate you’re watching!
So, this is Josh with The Fun Times Guide signing off for today.
