Checking Your Change

[Psychonaut]

In response to a request by Aemma for elucidation on how to recognize pennies whose metallic value outweighs their face value, I've assembled this small guide. Every time you get change, there is the potential to get more out of your money than you may first think.

The single best guide to the values of your coinage is Coinflation (http://www.coinflation.com/), and it's from there that the bulk of this post is derived.

We'll start with the penny. There are two basic types of pennies that you should be on the lookout for. The first, and most basic, is the 1909-1982 penny, which is 95% copper and, as of today, is valued at $0.0141710.

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1909_lincoln_copper_cent.jpg

Next up is the wheat penny. Depending on the year (http://coins.about.com/library/coin_values/bl_wheat_cents.htm), these can be worth anywhere from $0.03 to $550.

http://z.about.com/d/coins/1/0/j/-/-/-/1914-D_Wheat_Penny_Both.jpg

Nickles are only valuable for metallic content in a much more limited range. So-called 'war nickles' (1942-1945) are worth $0.7876 today due to their 35% silver and 56% copper composition.

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1942_silver_nickel.jpg

There are two dimes worth looking for (although you'll probably never see the first). Both are 90% silver and are worth about $1.0127. The 'mercury dime' was produced between 1916 and 1945 and the silver 'Roosevelt dime' between 1946 and 1964.

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1916_mercury_silver_dime.jpg http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1946_silver_dime.jpg

Quarters run between 1932 and 1964 are also 90% silver and are worth around $2.5318.

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1932_silver_quarter.jpg

There are two types of common half dollars that you might encounter that are worth something. The 1964 is 90% silver and worth $5.0637. The 1965-1970 run is 40% silver and worth $2.0705.

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1964_kennedy_silver_half_dollar.gif http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1965_kennedy_silver_half_dollar.jpg

There are other coins that you can see on the aforementioned site that are worth quite a bit, but the chances of you encountering those in the 'wild' are practically zero.

Questions? Feel free to ask.

[Psychonaut]

I'm an idiot! I dedicated this thread to Aemma and then completely forgot to include Canadian money! Here we go:

Pennies 1942 - 1977 are worth $0.0150450 (USD)
Pennies 1978 - 1979 are worth $0.0149819
Pennies 1980 - 1981 are worth $0.0129473
Pennies 1982 - 1996 are worth $0.0115599

http://www.coinflation.com/canada/canada_penny.gif

Nickles 1955 - 1981 are worth $0.0589007

http://www.coinflation.com/canada/canada_nickel.gif

Dimes 1920-1967 are worth $0.8399
Dimes 1967-1968 are worth $0.5250

http://www.coinflation.com/candime.jpg

Quarters 1920-1967 are worth $2.0999
Quarters 1967-1968 are worth $1.3124

http://www.coinflation.com/canquarter.jpg

Half Dollars 1920-1967 are worth $4.1999

http://www.coinflation.com/canhalfdollar.jpg

And finally dollars 1935-1967 are worth $8.3999

http://www.coinflation.com/candollar.jpg

[Æmeric]

All you need to remember about Canadian money is it is not worth as much as American. The Canadian snowbirds who use to winter in Arizona could not seem to understand why they couldn't just pay in Canadian currency. And yet they did manage to pass a fair amount of Canadian coinage into the local economy. :rolleyes:

[Ulf]

My wife and I do this with almost every coin we get.