30 May 2026: The First Personal Deal (Part 1)

 

After displaying and promoting the small bits of success that I had with purchasing coins on eBay and growing the personal collection, I came across a someone who said that he had a small collection of coins and that I would be welcome to them. 

In advance I received an inventory of what the person had in their coin collection, and there were quite a number of surprises in terms of coins that were one cent. 

The Lincoln cent was made by the U.S. Mint started in 1909, which would have been U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's 100th birthday. And they continued to make Lincoln cents until they discontinued the cent altogether in its entirety. The last year that the cent was minted was 2025.  

The coins from within were Lincoln cents with various dates going all the way back to 1912. Then subsequent years were absent, but then coming back in 1916, 1917, and 1918 which is remarkable considering they were minted during the First World War. (The United States entered into the war in 1917.) It is just something I noticed that the U.S. Mint still made coins even in times during war. 

From there, it was various dates going all the way to 1957. That was part of the Lincoln cent collection of the group. 

These are better known as "Lincoln Wheat" because of the wheat that appears on the reverse. These were produced from 1909 until 1958. Starting in 1958, the Lincoln cent has the image of the Lincoln memorial on the reverse that appeared until 2008. 

But as I stated, the lot of cents were 1958 and prior. So they were all Wheat cents. 

One of the greatest surprises of the lot of coins was the inclusion of earlier version of the one cent coin because I also received two Indian Head Cents with mint dates of 1901 and 1903.(minted from 1858 to 1908.) and I added two more to the collection on top of the 1905-P that I previously purchased.

Remarkable additions and the biggest surprise of them all was one specific coin. A large cent from 1812. Better known as Classic Head cent, which were made from 1808 to 1814. 

It was an incredible addition to an already large lot of coins.  

As you can tell these bonus cents (as I affectionately have called them) are nowhere near in any condition that would be considered good. But the more I researched these other coins, the more I was surprised about the information that I found. 

More of that in PART TWO!!!