Pile of crud coins

Thought I'd proudly share something that does not see the light of day too often - My pile of [mostly zinc] hopelessly corroded/bent/mauled pennies.

Must be close to 1,000.
Don't really want to throw them away, coinstar spits them out in record time, am not going to humiliate myself by taking them to the bank ,,, So I guess I am stuck with them, an ever increasing pile that my heirs can figure out what to do with.

These represent alot of exercise [and wasted time], you figure I had to bend over and pick up every one of these, most I had to dig for too.

Anyone so inclined, post your unwanted, useless ugly ducklings here.

run them threw a tumber and they should clean up pretty decent. Then the coin star machine should take them...Matt

Maybe a small percentage would be salvageable with a tumbler - The majority are beyond hope ,,, And it really wouldn't be worth the time & effort to tumble them.

Pull the copper pennies out and throw the zinc in the garbage. They are not worth your time.

No, none of this is worth my time.

Kind of an intentionally farce thread, not really looking for advice what to do with these, because I already know - Gonna save them, and let someone else down the line decide what to do.

run them threw a tumber and they should clean up pretty decent. Then the coin star machine should take them...Matt

I"D give it a try

Yes, unless they are freshly loss zinc, they almost always have enough zits or eaten away parts, that they would be very difficult to spend or use.   As if modern pennies are almost NOT WORTH PICKING UP ANYHOW, zincs just make the matter worse 

For this reason, when I'm turf hunting, I don't even stop to dig zincs, if I have reason to believe I'm hearing them with my TID.  I'll strictly dig 6" or deeper coins only in the turf, and just pass all clad, to begin with.   But on the beach, there's no avoiding them.  Even if you try to only dig low conductors (to enhance the odds at gold jewelry), you still end up digging rotten zincs, that are so rotten, they read at mid conductor or even lower.   I just throw them away.

if it's US currency,  it's still worth face value.  I'd take them to the bank

My philosophy is, if I bend over to pick something up, then I'm taking it with me.
Hell, if I get 5,000 of them, then maybe they'll be worth taking to the bank.

I sometimes ignore low targets, ringing like a school bell, when field hunting - On the other hand, MD'ing is full of surprises, and it usually doesn't take much effort to retrieve a shallow target.
Too, sometimes its beneficial to remove the shallower stuff in a promising area, which can mask the deeper, more desirable targets.
I have found spots though where wheats, silver and even IHP's are only an inch or two down, so the "ignore anything 3 inches and less" strategy can have its risks of passing up keepers in the quest to avoid clad.
Nothing under 6' is extreme for me,  thats about my max range for a coin with the Ace 250.

Xray, yes, it's possible that persons passing shallow clad *could* pass a shallow goodie.  But it's all in the odds:  if 99% of the time, a shallow zinc penny turns out to be ....... a shallow zinc penny, then that speaks for itself.  

As far as masking, it is true that if you strip-mine out all the surface targets, you will eventually find things that the shallow stuff masked.   Or put another way: some persons bristle at passing ANYTHING conductive in the turf (no matter how blighted or junky the turf is) because in their mind, you can have both the old, AND the new, if you "dig all".   And they rationalize that sometimes an oldie is shallow (brought up by a gopher, etc...) and therefore, you can have "the best of both worlds".  But invariably, here's what happens when you turf hunt in an old park, with someone using that mindset:  At the end of the hunt, the person honing in on only deep coin-type sounds, will end up with 10 or 15 oldies (wheaties, silver, etc..) and only 3 or 4 clad.  The person digging all will end up with 50 clad, and 2 or 3 oldies.  

Now I dunno about you, but I'd rather have one silver dime, than 100 new ones, etc...  The reason why the person digging all the shallow stuff will end the day with less oldies, is two-fold:  1) his ears become subconsciouly tuned to only the loud "bongs", and he ends up being less receptive, and thus subconsciously passing, the deep whispers.  Contrast to the person passing shallow clad, he ends up ultimately becoming more receptive to just the deepies.  2) the clad hunter ends up spending lots of time on the ground digging and probing and such, and lessens his time that he could have spent, honing in on only oldies.

As for the "sometimes oldies are shallow in the turf", it is the exception, not the rule.  So just as in black-jack, you "hold" when you have 20 in your hand, EVEN THOUGH the next card *might* be a one.  You're following odds.  And naturally this is all for stratified turf, where age is usually commensurate with depth.

Now turf jewelry hunting would be another matter altogether, as ....  of course .... jewelry can be modern.   There are still blighted inner-city urban parks where you would go psycho trying to dig all the foil and beaver tails out, in search of the elusive gold jewelry.  I can imagine odds of worse than 100 to 1 in some parks I have been to.  So in some turf, I'm strictly angling for old coins, and save my jewelry hunting for beaches, where jewelry odds/ratios are just better, to begin with.

You bring up some good points, and I'm glad your methods work well for you.
I am not really tied into set rules when it comes to hunting, I will vary my approach as I feel necessary.

The best lot I ever found I pulled up 100's of old coins. Wheats, V nickels, Buffalos, IHP's, silver and an assortment of artifacts - I doubt if I dug any of those over 4 inches, and no, the gophers didn't bring all of those up.
So in that lot, I obviously dug every target I could get a decent signal on, and am in fact still hunting it.

Out in some park or baseball field, I just might ignore shallow penny signals, and try for the deeper ones, in order to get a feel for whats out there.
We are all in it for something other than clad, to be sure - If we knew in advance that is all we would find, most of us wouldn't even try.
I've had my judgment and detectors judgment proved wrong enough times to know that you truly don't know what you got down there, until you dig it up ,,, And different circumstances sometimes calls for a different approach.
I may be missing out sometimes, but if you consistently dig only deep, then so are you.

i throwem into rolls n bank them lol

Any modern coin that has degenerated in the soil has lost it's chance at possible collector value for most reasons.

Considering the retrieval time, cleaning, and sorting, you'll never get even minimum wage for your time spent.

I tumble them with a handful of sand, a dash of detergent, and water.

Then I roll them with others and spend them on batteries.

put them in a bowl with water, vinegar, and some salt.  the less water the stronger this is.  after a minute or so the crud should loosen.  you may need to scrub them a bit.  you don't want to do this with collectible coins like wheats.  if you don't care if it damages the coins then don't use any water.

old cool indain head cents often ring up in the  "trash" zinc cent range --null the zincs --lose the indains *

For every ten dollars I hand the gas station, I also hand them a plastic baggie of $1.00 in 'beach change' (no quarters). I feel like I'm getting a discount at the pump--and this process also keeps the amount of my 'beach change' manageable.

I pass along a lot of my dug coins like that too Mack, I have two mason jars one for copper pennies to torn up to use and one for all the ate up zincs.

We have a homeless guy in our town that has no problem cleaning and spending the ones I give to him and his girlfriend.  Where there is a will..there is a way

I use to stick a few of these in every roll I took to the bank.  Then I started getting them back in change!  Now most of the time I just toss them.  The best way I have found to get rid of them when the grandkids are visiting is to put them in a plastic bag and have one of my small grandkids  take them up to a service desk and ask if they can get some money for them.  Who can refuse a cherub?  Then I let the grandkid buy something special with the good money they get.  Sometimes they are told to beat it by some cold hearted Scrooge though!  M nty

Tumble em and cash in all but the worst at the bank. As long as it it mostly intact, (something like 40%), they have to take them. A few zits and pock marks are okay.

And remember this. It only take 8 of them to recoup the inflation loss on a dollar. In this way, you are doing something even the bloated Federal Reserve Banking Consortium cannot do - you are restoring value to your own money.

1000 of them would revalue about $125.

I have some that were in worst shape then that (Missing 1/4 to 1/3 of the coin) and I tumbled them with some quarts fish tank stones, then I rolled them and deposited them to the bank,  I am sure they will send them back to the mint to be taken care of.   Just remember to put a good one on the end of the roll so you can't tell they are damaged, bent ones can be "realigned" with a light tap from a hammer.

Tumble them, then I'd get about $5.00 worth of good pennys, and mix them all together. Then roll them and take them to the store, or bank.

you could spread em all over a tot lot for someone else to dig up....lol

in all honesty I take mine all to the bank I don't care how bad they are. They have never refused them even half ate ones.

I get a sadistic thrill when I take them to the bank and see the look on tellers face....Yes it is great.

See how many of them a coinstar machine will take, they will spit out the ones it wont accept then you can try the bank if there is enough left to make it worthwhile.

See how many of them a coinstar machine will take, they will spit out the ones it wont accept then you can try the bank if there is enough left to make it worthwhile.

Not a good Idea to take them through coinstar. If you think they look "iffy" coinstar  will definetly spit them out. And if the manager or teller catches on to you they will politely tell you not to bring them through any more. Not worth the hassle  IMO. 

I personally feel an obligation to bring a crud coin back to presentable shape before I put it back in circulation.
I get what I know to be uncleaned, dug coins in my change occasionally.
I don't like getting it, I'm not going to do to someone else what I don't like, just because I'll remain personally blameless.
Which is not to say they must be pristine, I ain't that picky.
But to just dig something and not even bother wiping it off before spending it is tacky and childish, in my opinion.
If they are beyond redemption, then thats it, for me.
Like I said, whoever ends up inheriting them can figure out what to do [maybe just throw them away].

........not really looking for advice what to do with these, because I already know - Gonna save them, and let someone else down the line decide what to do.

Too funny  

But probably the best option.  I don't know if it is worth the time and effort to try to cash them in.  If you mail the bag of 1000 pennies, in which is only $10, to the federal reserve (at least someone posted this last year), they will pay you the amount based on weight.  Remember there is a cost to ship them and I imagine a cost to process them and in the end you probably get a check for a  whole dollar.  Save them in jars and someone down the line with probably think they are the coolest things (Grandpa's treasure).  My grandfather on his death bed asked of me several favors.  The last item he told me about was his Indian artifact collection that he wanted me to have.  He told me to go to his house and where it would be.  The sad thing was that while we were at Hospice with him someone had broken into his house and stole many items.  I did find a jar of broken odds and ends that I still cherish.

AS for having to dig zincs and other clad, we all have to do it (at least everybody that I know).  One place I used to hunt had tons of clad in the first 2 inches and below that some older silver.  But to get to that, one had to clean out the clad first.  The GTI 2500 would go crazy with all the good signals and it was impossible to pinpoint on to just one object when there were coins in areas centimeters apart.

One last option is just to slowly spend them.  One penny here and there adds up quickly.  Maybe leave a few extras with the tip at the restaurant.

Either way, keep enjoying what you are doing and have fun.

HH