What to do with those corroded zincs?

[DaveNV]

Like any respectable detectorist, I accumulate "tons" of zinc cents, most of which are too corroded to spend. Over the past few years, I've thrown them in a couple of quart canning jars, not knowing what else to do with them. After I finished filling the second jar and on my way to a third, I weighed them and found I had almost 11 lbs of them (which works out to be just under 2000 cents or $20 US.) , I decided to take the advice I saw here and see if I could really redeem them through the US Mint. So, I boxed them up (I was able to stuff them all in a flat rate box) and shipped them off last month. The check came today. My "profit" worked out to be $10.60 (it cost $5.80 postage). Yeah, hardly worth the effort, but after digging them all, I just couldn't bring myself to throwing them away. For those who want to try this, mail them off to:

United States Mint
ATTN: Mutilated Coin Redemption Section
P.O. Box 400 (for Post Office shipments only)
151 N. Independence Mall East
Philadelphia, PA 19106

You'll need to include the following info: Name, Address, Telephone Number, and SSN or TIN.

HH,
Dave

 

[Goes4ever]

I give mine to my bank and they run em thru the coin counter with all other coins I have tumbled and they hand me cash, they have never rejected a single one

 

[sprchng]

I stick them in the tumbler just long enough to get the crusty stuff off and then take them to the Coinstar machine at Wal-Mart when I get about a one pound coffee can full. I just dump them in and wait for it to sort the good from the bad and accept the fee as money well spent. They usually end up with about a buck and I get 9 or so. Out of a can that size there are usually 30 or 40 that the machine spits out and I usually just leave them there for someone who thinks they're getting lucky.

 

[mudpuppy]

Very cool Dave! i've a "ton" of those really rotten ones! Gonna give this a go just for the excitement of it all! Hey, 10 bucks is 10 bucks! Nice work!
Mud

 

[ironsight]

Corroded, crusty, deformed zinc pennies! :angry:

I've been tempted to re-bury them and let the next detectorist worry about it!

 

[fowlercharles]

Hi Goes4rever, you must be getting those coins really clean in your tumbler if your Bank friends are handling them ok.Those automatic coin counters take a beating from the regular un dug coins that folks haven't washed. I know that when talking to my friends at my bank it is not uncommon for them to take a loss from dealing with repair and maint. of their coin counters because of breakdowns because of dirty and subgrade coins that screw up their machines. A few $ a can doesn't really add up to anything worth the trouble seems to me, but to be cool with your Bank folks ask them about it and see what there reaction is. One thing we already know is that if there is a problem, (loss) we know who is likely feeding that mule already. HH Charlie

 

[JB(MS)]

Charles, if your ground in south MS is as acidic as it is in this part of north MS it begins eating zincs away within a couple of weeks. The ones in the photo are typical of zincs that have been in the ground here for a few months. In June of of 2011 I tumbled over 6,200 dirty and corroded pennies I had let build up and over 1,600 hundred zincs came out so bad I gave them to one of the park and rec guys to sell with the scrap metal he collects.

 

[Robert2300]

You lucked out at your bank. I bank with Chase and they refused to
take my zinc. I just end up throwing them away.
Robt2300

 

[fowlercharles]

Hi JB, yeah for sure, you do have some acidic ground! Mine is also acidic, but maybe, not quite as bad as yours. Years ago I found a couple of 1/2 dollar sized copper/zinc store tokens at an old log camp that were in beautiful shape except where a couple of smaller tokens had lain "sandwiched' together with them. There was an almost perfect quarter sized hole eaten completely through the middle of both the larger tokens. I know the Lincolns don't last long in the dirt though. An Archie friend once told me there are rarely if ever any remains left in burials in our dirt. I think she meant just about anywhere in Ms.

 

[Overvoltage]

I just roll mine, good and bad together. My bank has always taken them.

 

[jackintexas]

I just prefer not to take the time to dig zincs. .....Jack

 

[REVIER]

I just prefer not to take the time to dig zincs. .....Jack

Everyone's threshold is different when it comes to digging zinc.
Some are like you and don't dig them at all, some dig a few and then that's it, others like me dig every one they come across.
I probably would skip them too but at this point a few things have happened to me that drives me on to always dig these things.
By now I have dug enough to take the wife and I out to a couple of very nice dinners.

Out of the thousands I have dug 4 times that low zinc signal wasn't a zincoln or junk but were actually very large gold rings that got me about $1000 from ARA at melt prices.
The percentage numbers are huge and skewed way too high in the wrong direction but those numbers actually work for me because on the rare times it does happen the thrill I get is one of the best parts of this hobby for me.

One time I dug a zinc signal that was a bit high and very close to a regular zincoln but that signal was actually a token but not the Chuckie Cheese variety...it was a very rare promotional merchants token with a 1922 date on it and only 5 or less were known to exist.
I am the only one ever to post a picture of this particular specimen on the entire world wide web, even the owner of a token and exonumia website sent me an e-mail when I asked about it and said he has never seen one like it.
Still one of my most cherished finds ever in my collection.

This is a hobby not a job, everyone has a different idea on digging zinc and that is perfectly fine as long as that decision makes each hunter happy.

 

[GKMan]

I hate digging clad, but who knows what other older coins they may be masking if you don't dig them up..

Wow those are corroded... I don't find a lot of class where I hunt so if they are that far gone I just trash then..

I would have hated to be the guy that had to count out twenty dollars worth of rotten zincs, and it probably cost the government fifty bucks to county them for you..

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I dont think these zincolns will go thru any coin counting machine ever made. These have been tumbled. Some day I may ship a box full of them back to the mint.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

One never knows for certain what is under the coil until it is dug and in hand. I have had a couple of 10K rings that I would have sworn were a lump of foil until I saw the yellow. Some days I dig all zinc signals and some days I dont have the energy to dig them. Unfortunately I dig a tremendous number of them that are corroded beyond being able to send them thru the coin counting machine at my Credit Union.