He: "Whats the average amount of wheats you've found in a 25 dollar box of pennies??
Me: "7-10 is about right. I've pulled over 50 and I've been skunked. I search them all for die varieties, never been skunked."
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| Wheat Cent Reverse Design Produced from 1909-1958 |
He: "Die varieties?"
His question is poignant. There is a whole world of numismatics out there that this fellow has not been exposed to. I see this with a lots of inexperienced coin roll hunters. While they have discovered that wheats can be found in abundance just by searching through pocket change and bank rolls, they have not yet learned of other things that can be found which, if correctly identified, are highly prized and valuable.
Wheat cents are worth 3-4¢ each for common date, circulated examples that would be typically found in bank rolls. Plenty of folks collect wheats and assembling a complete set of 40s and 50s with all mintmarks is entirely possible just from coin roll hunting. If hunting wheats for their value is the objective, there is much more out there that is being missed. I see wheat cents as an incidental perk rather than the primary objective of a hunt.
Here's a sampling of the sort of thing that can be found just from hunting through cents...
WAMs and CAMs
This is the result of the wrong reverse die being used in certain years. WAM is an acronym for Wide AM. It refers to the distance between the letters A and M in America. A circulated 2000 WAM can be sold for around $5. You might find one in your next box. It may take several boxes to find one. It's a sure bet that if you don't check for them you won't find any. Compared to wheats picked out over 10 boxes, perhaps 100 wheats with a marketable value of $3, a single WAM can bring around twice the value. Searching for only three dates (1998/1999/2000) in addition to the wheats can give you nearly 3 times the value vs wheats alone. Since these require little extra effort compared to the leap in value, I have put together an article to better explain WAMs and CAMs and a video to go with it:CHEAT SHEET
To give you a better idea of what is out there, I've put together a Cheat Sheet of die varieties. There are thousands of die varieties that can be found in pocket change, coffee cans and bank rolls. This is a short list and is updated and improved when the whim strikes.
DOUBLED DIE
There are doubled die varieties which are easy to find. Hunt for those as your learn. The skills needed to identify them will help you identify the harder to find and more valuable varieties.
PROOF
A Proof is a specially produced coin by the US mint. The dies are hgihly polished, as are the planchets, and the minting process is at a higher level of standards. The result is a distinct and separate class of coin.There are Proof strikes to be found in circulation. They might not look as nice as the example shown, but they are out there. Learn to identify them.
CLASHED DIE
These are easy to identify. The design of the other side of the coin has been partly transferred, giving a coin a distinctive appearance. I explain how this happens and offer some example as part of the Coin Trivia Contest.
Still More
There are small dates, repunched mintmarks, thin planchets, wrong planchets, foreign planchets, die breaks, cuds, flared initials, doubled ears, extra columns, mintmark design varieties, extra thickness of letters and numbers, clear and distinct doubled dies, inverted mintmarks, overstruck mintmarks, brockage errors, capped dies. lathe lines, clipped planchets, die chips, BIEs, transitional design varieties...the list goes on.Over on the right side of this page is a list of link that will take you to the Reader Gallery. These are coins found in circulation. Some things are worth a little. Some are worth a lot. Some are just plain weird.
If all you are doing is searching for wheats and silver, you're leaving the big money behind. Wheats are good for 3¢. WAMs...5 bucks. In a couple of boxes there's a good chance you'll find one.
| Circulated Wheat Cent | 3¢ |
| BU Memorial in the 60s | 10-30¢ |
| Impaired Proof | 25¢-50¢ |
| 1960 Small Date | $1 or more |
| Memorial DDR Class 8 | $1-5 |
| BIE | $1-6 |
| Clashed Die | $1-10+ |
| 2000 WAM | $5-20 |
| 1970-S Small Date | $20 and up |
| 1972 DDO-003 | $10-30 |
| 1983 DDR | $50-100 |
| Decent RPM | $10 |
| 1992-D Close AM | $500-2500 |
| 1969-S DDO | $10k |
That last box of cents you went through had some of these in there. For all the effort, I'd like to think you pulled out more than 50¢ worth of wheats.
There are 2 reasons why people search for wheats rather than die varieties
- They don't know what to look for. There are links on this blog for this.
- They don't know how to look. Kinda the whole point to this blog.
I put out a series of videos which shows my method from start to finish. Everyone has their own method which works for them. There is no Best method. All I can do is offer ideas which may improve your efficiency and results.
You don't have to be lucky. You only need to be persistent. They are out there.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting.
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