Memorial Madness!

[lincparr]

I finally decided to look through my jar of memorial cents to see if any interesting varieties were in there.These were coins I had accumulated from pocket change and any I found while working at my current job.It was quite frustrating as 75% of these coins were 1982 cents!Almost all of the 1982 cents were the small date zinc variety.Currently,BU rolls of this variety are one of the most valuable in the whole Memorial series!Go figure.With billions and billions of Memorial cents in circulation,most of these sit in penny jars which actually decreases your chances of finding anything!I personally feel that there cannot be a shortage of cents in circulation,but the mint continues to punch out billions more every year.I am hoping that they decide to stop minting Lincolns for another design.That would finally close the series and make collecting them more fun since varieties are becoming scarcer every year due to the new minting process.If 5 billion cents are minted in a given year,and 1 million of one variety exists,your chances of finding one are 5000 to 1! No thanks .

[Bob P]

Lincparr,
Seems like you've gotten a little frustrated One thing you need to remember about variety collectors, is that most of us really don't care what the mintage was. The fun is in the hunt, and ultimately, if you look long and hard enough, you'll find something nice to add to your collection. Not only that, but when you find it, you really don't remember or care about the long seraches leading up to it.
I have cherrypicked very many nice die varieties from pocket change. We can't assume anything. Just because the numbers are astronomical, doesn't mean that the majority of the biggest and best varieties are sitting in your jar, or in your bank or neighborhood.
I am sure everyone here can tell you that there are lean times, and other times when you seem to get a few each day. We thought there might not be any more doubled dies when they started the single squeeze method, but now we are finding something almost every year! Just hang in there and enjoy the hobby for what it is...a hobby! OK??