We recently received a letter from loyal reader Kenneth Denski, who enlightened us with an idea to share that may be of interest to readers. Rather than bury it among other letters, I thought this idea was worthy enough to break out into a place one page before where it might have normally gone.

Reverend Denski wrote, “As a summer project, and helped by the fact that I am now retired, I thought I would go back 60-plus years and search some pennies.”

Our natural curiosity makes us wonder where this is going, so we read on. Denski shared his findings.

He searched 35,000 coins. Of that number, 13.6% were from 1909 to 1981, a total of 4,764 coins. From the earliest years, 1909 to 1958, the Wheat reverse years, only 134 coins made an appearance, a miniscule .0038% of the total.

You can see this is not an exercise for those who are seeking a high rate of success if the objective is to find older cents. A lot of cents have been placed into circulation. Maybe a new collector could start looking at rolls of quarters instead, but those are more expensive than cents. Back to our story.

“I was surprised by the number of 1909 through 1981 cents that were either AU or bright, original Mint red from the late 1950s through the 1970s,” Denski continued. “I found one 1909 VDB in Fine 12, one 1929 in AU and several culls from the 1930s and 1940s as well.”

So what was the motive for all of this effort? “It was a fun project, proving that the little kid in me, at least, is still there.”

What that response, I immediately flashed back to the days when we were tasked as “little kids” to write on the subject “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” Now the flashbacks were hitting me. I pressed Denski for more details.

“I picked up the $25 boxes, one at a time, from three different branches of the bank I use from June through August 2024,” he wrote back. “In the beginning, I received several boxes of 2022 Lincoln cents exclusively. I got smart, so I asked the teller for ‘dirty’ boxes of cents, since you can see through the holes in the box if all were the same, new date, etc.

“I turned in the non-keepers once a month, but never at the bank where I received them. Tellers were very cooperative, save for one who was really put out by my returning so many rolls of pennies.”

One wonders if that same aggravation would have been felt had it been another denomination like dimes or quarters. Coins that are more frequently exchanged in commerce might have gotten a better response.

The point to all of this is that the roll transactions involved a personal interaction between customer and vendor, and those are getting less and less frequent. That disgruntled teller could be on a path to being replaced by automation or downsizing and should be thankful to have the task. Off the soapbox  now, because there’s more.

“I have to tell you it was a lot of fun, reminding me of my trips to the bank in the late 1950s for a roll or two to search through. And for anyone who may want to do the same, it is definitely addictive … sometimes, I would wake up at night and go through a few rolls.

“The kid in me still thinks he will find a 1909-S VDB.”

So what’s next? “Just know that I am going to continue this project through the fall and winter months, but at a sensible pace.”

If it sounds like something you’d like to do, now is the time to go for it. After all, the experiences we gain in the pursuit can sometimes be more valuable than any resulting finds.

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