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Question about Wheats

N

Neita SC

New member
Ok, I have to ask. Why do you guys get excited about Wheat Pennies? My only thought is that if you are finding wheats, then silver is close by. Is that the answer or do Wheats possess some magical powers.
Thx for the explanations.
 
Yes, Neita, at least part of the reason is the "silver may be close by" thing. Since they stopped making wheats just before they stopped making silver coins, if you find a wheat, you are likely in an older area capable of holding silver. Plus I like 'em because they are different, and thus seem "older," if that makes any sense. Finally, wheats are usually worth at least a BIT more than face value, and often more than "copper melt" value; sometimes, they are worth quite a bit more depending upon condition.

Steve
 
With the wheaties I run the numbers, in that not two many of them gets lost without a dime being included. Also, if your finding any of the 1965 to 1975 pull rings you in a good spot!
People,
Money,
And back before the clad coin age.

Sta-tabs are clad coin age.

Mark
 
53 years old and older Steve......... Just think Indian Head pennies are 103 or older..........

Yes we like wheats because usually Silver is in the area.. Not always but many times..
 
MarkCZ said:
With the wheaties I run the numbers, in that not two many of them gets lost without a dime being included. Also, if your finding any of the 1965 to 1975 pull rings you in a good spot!
People,
Money,
And back before the clad coin age.

Sta-tabs are clad coin age.

Mark
Click to expand...
hahaah you just made my last hunt SO much better,,,,, I pulled a zillion old pull tabs,,,,and just one wheat,,,,but I bet they were there and I will have a better time next hunt with cleaner ground (that's what I keep telling myself anyways lol)
 
you are correct!..as you stated,when you start "hitting" wheats,then silver (generally)
is close by!..YESTERDAY as today MOST people carried BOTH pennies,and dimes,and or nickles
as "pocket change"..USUALLY when dropped,the coin(s)could have been either wheats,or silver
dimes,because,again,those denominations are what most people carried as change,with,of course,the occasional quarter,or half!
just sayin!

(h.h.!)
j.t.
 
I love finding wheats!! 32 since last summer,oldest 1909.which I think was the first year they made them.Both silver dimes I found were accompanied with wheats.Ever now and then one will pop up in change,but those days are few and far apart......hh rick in mi.
 
I'll admit wheaties don't get me excited like they did when I found my first one, but it's still fun to find an obsolete coin and if wheat is in the ground silver may be too. Funny how you can usually tell with just a casual glance if you have a wheat because that Lincoln memorial stands out so much on the newer coppers.

I emphasize the term "may be" because wheat pennies were still in wide circulation several years after silver disappeared.

Clad started in 1965 and within a couple years it was rare to find a silver coin in circulation. That means if you find a silver coin, it is unlikely it was dropped after 1965 and extremely unlikely that it was dropped after 1966.

Despite ending production in 1958, wheaties were still in wide circulation until sometime around the mid-1970's when collectors started seriously hoarding them. I remember selling selling quite a few rolls of them I had collected around 1980 or so for about 4 cents apiece. I think they sold for more then than they do now.

As far as pulltabs go, NASA Tom Dankowski says that they were invented in 1962, but according to an article I read they didn't become widespread until a few years after that. So finding pulltabs is not a specific indicator of likely silver nearby, since most pulltabs were probably dropped sometime between the late 1960's and the 1980's when the stay-on tab took over. By the time pulltabs reached popularity, silver was already gone from circulation.

Another thing to note is that in the 1960's and before, cans did not dominate the beverage landsape like they do now. Back then, most beverages were sold in bottles.
 
Finding a mess of wheat's instead of clad:nerd: or :pulltab:?

It does depict a time zone. Two days ago I found 4 wheat's than a 1925 mercury dime. I had a smile:) I must be in a good location for older things.

I have noticed that when I find a mess of wheat's from one site. The other finds are much better. It was probably an indicator that no one else has MD'ed it before. I found 40 wheat's at one site and the other finds were awesome. IH's, tokens, silver, buffaloes, V-nickles, B&O employ's brass, a 1942 Royal Air Force hat pin and a complete set of war nickles.
 
marcomo said:
I'll admit wheaties don't get me excited like they did when I found my first one, but it's still fun to find an obsolete coin and if wheat is in the ground silver may be too. Funny how you can usually tell with just a casual glance if you have a wheat because that Lincoln memorial stands out so much on the newer coppers.

I emphasize the term "may be" because wheat pennies were still in wide circulation several years after silver disappeared.

Clad started in 1965 and within a couple years it was rare to find a silver coin in circulation. That means if you find a silver coin, it is unlikely it was dropped after 1965 and extremely unlikely that it was dropped after 1966.

Despite ending production in 1958, wheaties were still in wide circulation until sometime around the mid-1970's when collectors started seriously hoarding them. I remember selling selling quite a few rolls of them I had collected around 1980 or so for about 4 cents apiece. I think they sold for more then than they do now.

As far as pulltabs go, NASA Tom Dankowski says that they were invented in 1962, but according to an article I read they didn't become widespread until a few years after that. So finding pulltabs is not a specific indicator of likely silver nearby, since most pulltabs were probably dropped sometime between the late 1960's and the 1980's when the stay-on tab took over. By the time pulltabs reached popularity, silver was already gone from circulation.

Another thing to note is that in the 1960's and before, cans did not dominate the beverage landsape like they do now. Back then, most beverages were sold in bottles.
Click to expand...
Pull tabs started to hit main stream beverages (beer first) in 1965! and went on through 1975, then sta-tabs took over. That means that most of the silver would have been lost just before they got covered with a blanket of pull tabs. Silver coins for the most part should be at just under the pull tabs.

If you find a 1954 penny that doesn't show a lot of signs of wear then it wasn't carried to long before it was lost, or any coin for that matter. (except the stinken, Zinc'ins)

If your in an area and you only digging Sta-tabs and not pull tabs then your not likely to find any silver coins! But if you can get down to the pull tabs then you are MUCH closer to the silver coinage.

I've got a pretty nice US penny collection, you can look through them and tell which ones spent the most time in circulation and which ones have been pull or stored early in their life. No! you can't get it excite but you can get an idea.

Mark
 
Good posts, Mark. You make an excellent point that even though the pull tab postdates circulating silver, it's not by much. So you are right that finding pulltabs is a much more hopeful sign for silver in a similar or slightly deeper strata than finding StaTabs.

I was thinking my memory was getting a little fuzzy. I guess the years around 1975 I was at that age where I drank more beer then any other time of my life but I wasn't paying a lot of of attention as to how I was opening it!

I decided to do a little research like I should have done in the first place before posting because my memory is that the StaTab didn't really take over until sometime in the 1980's.

I found an interesting site called rustycans.com that gives the history of the pulltab and the StaTab. According to that site, the StaTab was introduced in Dec. 1975, although it didn't catch on as quickly as the pulltab. But by the early 1980's more breweries had adopted it. Coca-Cola was an early adapter, switching to the StaTab in 1976.

Apparently the StaTab was invented for aluminum cans and the price of aluminum approximately doubled between 1973 and 1976 which delayed the conversion from cans with steel ends and the spreading of the StaTab since StaTabs for the cans with steel ends weren't introduced as early as the ones for the aluminum ones.
 
INTERESTING STUFF guys!----I'm gonna look at those "blasted" pull tabs a little differently now! :biggrin:-----I didn't know the years production run on them 1965 to '75---interesting!----I knew Tom said they (initially) came out with them around 1962.-----So, (PROVIDING the site is old enough)--you find pulltabs--you got a good chance of finding silver (generally speaking). :thumbup:-----Now all I gotta do is get past those stinkin things! ;)---------Del
 
I love the wheats.......only sad thing is most get corrosion due to heavy mineralization........but after 30yr's of swinging, I still love em. Cause they're old:) Like me.
 
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