# Finding something unexpected in a box. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 18, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139 "2011-03-18T12:35:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/1 "2011-03-18T12:35:50Z")
Dearly Beloved and I visited Mom last weekend. She gave us a box of pennies. It weighs roughly 20 pounds. Box is about 16 inches long by 7" by 7" or so. Our bank has a counting machine that doesn’t charge you the way CoinStar™ machines do, so we offered to cash them in and send her a check. D.B. likes to keep Wheat pennies. Old family tradition. Fair enough. We start culling through the piles. We found an awful lot of Wheat pennies- more than 120 by D.B.'s count. I found three [steel 1943 cents](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_steel_cent) from WWII. ( having read that page, I am gonna look through in case there’s the very rare 1943 copper cent 😃 ) D.B. found an [Indian Head cent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Head_penny) from 1883. Mom, where the hell did you get this box?? Yeah, there was a 2003 and one 2009 penny in there too. So it wasn’t like it was a box of Gramma’s pennies that had been dragged around for 20 or 30 years. Even SO, if it was, Gramma died in 1981 and… an Indian Head penny? 3 steel pennies from '43? Weirdest thing I’ve found in an innocuous box in a really long time. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/2 "2011-03-18T12:46:25Z")
No cat? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/3 "2011-03-18T13:03:50Z")
Just looked for a 1943 copper cent. No dice. 😃 Odd, that it seemed that I found more 1944 cents than any other. Oldest Wheat cents was a 1912. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/4 "2011-03-18T13:42:11Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Just looked for a 1943 copper cent. No dice. 😃 > > Odd, that it seemed that I found more 1944 cents than any other. Oldest Wheat cents was a 1912. 1912 was the first for the Lincoln wheat cent, Indians before 1912. Pre-1945, production of pennies was measured in tens or hundreds of millions. After the war was over, or nearly over, production soared to billions per year. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/5 "2011-03-18T14:07:32Z")
With all due respect, somewhere I have from my childhood interest in collecting pennies one of those blue cardboard fold-out holders with holes punched into it for each year and variety. I do in fact have a 1909 VDB but it is not a VDB-S. It shows Lincoln on the face, not the Indian Head. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/6 "2011-03-18T14:30:47Z")
WHOOPS, yes 1909 was the first year, my bad. Not enough coffee! 🙂 Hang on to those Indian cents, those are pretty interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/7 "2011-03-18T14:33:18Z")
> [@campp](#): > > 1912 was the first for the Lincoln wheat cent, Indians before 1912. > > Pre-1945, production of pennies was measured in tens or hundreds of millions. After the war was over, or nearly over, production soared to billions per year. Indian Head Cents were minted up to and including 1909. Lincoln Wheats also started in 1909. 1944 was indeed the first billion-mintage year, just over 2 billion between the three mints. It’s just about the most-minted wheat, along with 1958. ETA : Never mind, I see your correction. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/8 "2011-03-18T15:49:12Z")
There’s only the one Indian Head cent. I’m just flummoxed- Mom is out, I have no answer to the mystery. Penny from 1883. Penny from 2009. What the hell ?! ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/9 "2011-03-18T16:04:14Z")
Grandma was a time traveller, duh. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/10 "2011-03-18T16:04:43Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > With all due respect, somewhere I have from my childhood interest in collecting pennies one of those blue cardboard fold-out holders with holes punched into it for each year and variety. snip I had those too! In fact, a few years ago, I bought a couple of Lincoln folders, and started filling them based on what I ran across in pocket change. A long term experiment. So far, so good, but I’ll never find all those pre-war wheaties. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/11 "2011-03-18T17:30:44Z")
I also had one of those blue cardboard folders. For about a year I tried filling it by perstering for loose change every relative and guest who came by the house. My friend across the street also had one. He filled his with the simple expedient of his dad buying the pennies from a coin shop. I never did fill mine. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/12 "2011-03-18T17:33:40Z")
I wonder if it first wasn’t used as a box for old coins and then at some point she (someone) just started throwing all their change in there. Hella find though, that’s awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/13 "2011-03-18T19:39:07Z")
That is awesome (I’m a very _laissez-faire_ coin collector). I thought this was going to be finding an unopened box from your last move - “Oh, THAT’S where all that stuff went!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/14 "2011-03-18T20:54:50Z")
I’d play, but I don’t think I could compete with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-something-unexpected-in-a-box/575139/15 "2011-03-19T02:30:39Z")
I dunno, it doesn’t seem at all odd to me. Unless you imagine that every penny was deposited during the year it was minted. mmm