Wheat Penny Values
http://coins.about.com/library/coin_values/bl_wheat_cents.htm

History of the Lincoln Cent
http://coins.about.com/od/famousrarecoinprofiles/a/lincoln_cents.htm

Dang! Only 12 cents -- about the same as a steel penny from WW2. But hey, I'm not into collecting coins for the money.

Among the items I've received in payment at my business:

1. A 1928 $10 US Gold Certificate (just last week).

2. Four rolls of wheatback pennies (looks like they were rolled in the mid-50's judging by the dates...oldest was 1927).

3. An 1887 silver dollar.

4. Numerous US Silver Certificates.

Amazing what some folks put into circulation.

Back in 1970, when my mother was a teller at a local (or then local, at least) bank, the proverbial Little Old Man came in off the street with about 50-75 rolls of pennies, for which he wanted paper - he had no account. The rolls looked old, and when Mom opened one up, she found a few Indian heads, and the rest pre-1930 Lincolns. The other rolls were similar. She called the manager & they told the guy he should take them to a coin shop, but he was adamant - he said he'd been through them & he just wanted folding money. They gave it to him, & the staff divided up the rolls - Mom ended up with 25 rolls, & sure enough, no 1914-D or 1909S-VDB, but lots of fun for us kids. Thank you, Little Old Man! Every now & then I'll drop an old penny at a kid's lemonade stand - the look on the faces is worth the minor financial sacrifice. (And maybe it's Karma, but I found a valid 500 franc note in with a 50-cent bag of junk banknotes at a garage sale a month ago - worth about $50 or so, until next year, when it turns into a pumpkin)

Imagine how much those California IOU's are going to appreciate in a few years ...

I seem to recall a coin of similar age was dumped into local circulation a few months back ahead of the big coin collectors convention at the Convention Center. Had you found it in time, it was worth a hundred bucks. Now? Just $.12. Welcome to Paulson's America.

As for bank teller stories, when I was a teller downtown in the 90s, I had a customer come in with 25 $2 silver notes, sequentially numbered. She wanted to deposit them. The kid she went to brought them to me and asked whether they were real, as in legal tender. I handled them for a moment and walked back to the customer.

"You realize what these are, don't you?" I asked.

She did not. I gave her gave her a brief explanation along with directions to the coin store around the corner. She thanked me and I never saw her again. Hope she made a few extra bucks.

I've got a large jar with about 3 gallons of pennies collected over 20 years.

Any ideas on how one could check all of them for rarity and value without the time consuming one by one inspection and comparison to value chart?

Is there a scanning device that reads coins?

Jack's coin is from the Philadelphia mint, which was very active in the late teens. Rolls of the 1918 are readily available on Ebay. I have one.

To Ben: no scanner. It's one by one. It's fun! Nearly all Lincoln cents over the past 20 years, except certain extreme rarities, are worth one cent. Cents stopped being copper in 1983. They are a metaphor for our economy: shiny on the outside but worthless zinc inside.

Also, such unsearched jars are often sold on Ebay.

I was making a cash payment the other day when I thought I heard the clerk ask me if it was okay to give me "a dollar in coins".

"Sure", I told him.

When he handed me my change, I realized he was giving me several dollars worth of dollar coins.

I was less enthused about it, but I remembered someone telling me that the payment boxes on TriMet buses accept them and that's where they went.

What are the tax implications? Is the additional value beyond $0.01 taxable as income or is this a purchase price adjustment?

There is a recent tax evasion and fraud case that included paying in gold coins and reporting only the face value as income.

Just think of the stories that coin could tell. It is so beautifully worn and smoothed. How many fingers have had their way with that coin?

COOL!