These 1946 wheat pennies are among the most common dates you will find as you begin your coin collecting journey but how much are they worth? And should you keep them when you find them from coin roll hunting?
The answer to that question is twofold. Firstly in terms of absolute dollar value the 1946 no mint mark wheat back penny is only listed as selling for two to four cents each in average circulated condition. Even in a perfect mint state they are only said to be worth just over one dollar, however that is not the price everyone is getting for these when they start looking for buyers.
For instance on eBay and other online auction sites they are going for closer to five cents each with rolls of 1940s and 1950s American pennies consistently going for two to five dollars a roll if you sell them during the right time of the year, usually around Christmas or as tax refunds begin rolling in at the beginning of the year but usually after the end of January.
There is also the option of flea markets and coin shops. These are notorious for selling newer wheat pennies for 5 to 10 cents a pop, usually in quantities of 250 or 500. At this price they will still be circulated condition coins but will be better looking than the ones you will typically find yourself. These are usually sitting in peanut butter jars. I think those plastic jars are triggers for older collectors.
Of course outside of monetary value, there is intrinsic value. All of the pennies minted in the year 1946 were made out of used artillery shells from American military training camps expended during WWII. This makes them very collectible not just as coins but as a piece of history.
Now that we have talked about value let's see what we have today. In the above image we have four more 1946 no mint mark wheat back pennies I took out of my old copper coin hord. I'm starting to get towards the bottom of my collection. These are just standard condition American cents with the exception of the one on the top left side which has some chipping which has removed some of the surface metal of the coin.
The only on worth mentioning is the bottom left hand penny. This could be a strike error. If you look at the rim of this penny you will notice two dents. One on the top left and another on the other side that is much bigger. The one on the right top side is so bad it almost covers up the lettering of 'in god we trust'. I see coins like these going for huge amounts on online bidding sites albeit in much better shape than this one. To be honest I think a lot of these are defaced and tampered coins that unscrupulous types pawn off on unwary buyers.
I do know that honest mint errors like this exist but they can also be easily manufactured with a hammer and vice grip. I personally feel that a lot of these coins are faked or just accidents that naturally happen in the life cycle of old wheat pennies. Just be careful what you buy and do your research.
I want to make another point about collecting old wheat back pennies for those of you that are just starting out in this hobby and feeling anxious.
Collecting coins can be a fun pastime but it can also become a choir if you get obsessed or get depressed from finding too many common dates like the 1944 penny above. It's a wonderful feeling when you pull out a super old wheat cent or even better a nice 1800s Indian head penny but you have to go through a ton of paper coin rolls to find these.
When you start getting multiple boxes from the banks and you find yourself going through hundreds of dollars worth of pennies it is easy to suffer from burnout. That's when you have to take a break. This hobby and any collectors hobby for that matter has to be fun. If you're not getting enjoyment out of something you do there is no point in continuing to grind through it.
That's why it's best not to get too serious when it comes to coin searching. One tip I have is to have multiple hobbies so you can take a break from one of them if it gets too overwhelming.
Another tip is to coin roll hunt while your doing another activity like watching television. I can't do this as my bad vision requires me to focus my eyes in the coins but I have a friend that does this. Personally I like to listen to the radio while I'm doing it.
Whatever tactic you use be sure to make it fun. We all have enough stress in our day to day lives that we don't need to make our downtime stressful as well. Just take it easy and open a few rolls here and there. There's no need to rush. There are millions of coins out there just waiting to be found and they're not going anywhere.
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