My grandfather passed away recently and left me roughly $520 worth of wheat and indian head pennies. I'm no coin expert but I know enough that they are made from copper which pennies now a days are not, and that wheat and indian pennies must have some sort of value. How could these rolls be worth? And what should I do with them? Sit on them, sell them, what?
As was stated it is against the law to melt cents or nickels right now or remove a large amount from the USA. Most wheat cents and all Indian head cents if not damaged have some collector value. The easiest way to get an idea of value is to get coins magazine or a magazine type price guide. They are inexpensive and even a coin dealer may have a copy of a magazine with a price guide. This way you can at least get an idea of value. If the coin is well worn then it falls at the low end of value and if is real nice with a lot of detail it falls more towards the high end. If you have a rare coin it then can be graded by a coin dealer or professional grader. Such coins would be Indian head cents from the 1870's or early Lincolns with mint marks such as the teens D or S. With the economy still not so hot, it may pay to just hold onto them for awhile. You can also check for a coin club in your area and ask members for their help in finding values. if you go to a dealer make sure you see more than one and never go to a pawn shop or antique dealer.
As mentioned earlier it is illegal to melt the coins for their metal content. The best way to see what value you might have is to sort the coins by date. I know it will be a long process but unless you need the money right away this is the only way you will begin to get an idea of what you have there and what you don't. You should get a copy of A Guide Book of United States Coins, by R.S. Yeoman. This is also known at the Red Book in the hobby and is the basic book every collector should have. You can get a copy at the library if you want to go that route. The coin prices are not current so I would not use it for that purpose. But it will tell you which dates are generally more valuable and the ones you need to look for. After everything is sorted and you have any idea which dates are more likely to be valuable I would look for a local coin club to see if someone would be willing to help you sort the key dates for mint marks and by grade or condition of the coins. The key to the value of a coin is the condition of the coin and it takes an experienced eye to tell the difference between grades. If you really want to sell the coins now find a couple of dealers and see what they will offer for the group. Have the coins divided by type and the quantity of each type. The dealers will probable offer you 2 or 3 cents each for the Lincoln Cents and maybe $1 each for the Indian Heads. I am not real sure on the wholesale pricing for the Indian Heads. If you find a local coin club someone there might be willing to offer you a little bit more for the coins. They don't have the overhead of the dealers and don't have to make as much profit because they are not trying to put bread on their table by buying and selling coins. Good luck, who knows by the time you are done you might become a collector also.
A copper penny made before 1982 is worth about 2.4 cents in copper value alone. It is illegal to deface the penny by melting it down, but that may be changing in the near future. There may also be a number of collectible coins. I would start to sort them looking for any collectibles and store the rest. copper is going to be a valuable commodity one day soon.
