There’s no end to the investment opportunities paraded before the buying public, with coins among the more popular in recent years. If the offerings have one thing in common, it is high price markup. Some months ago I reported on a firm selling 5-cent pieces for about 22 cents each. The 440 percent markup caused me to choke a bit. However, a newspaper advertisement just appeared that suggests the nickel peddler was a piker.

The headline reads: “U.S. Government to Abolish the Lincoln Penny . . . FOREVER?” The ad goes on to say “The First Federal Mint announces the limited release to the public bags of old vintage ‘Wheat Back’ Lincoln Cents. These have not been minted for over 45 years. You can acquire them in half-pound bags.” Though it took a bit of analyzing, plus a telephone inquiry to First Federal, I discovered that 61 pennies, in circulation these past many decades, can be purchased for $26.90. This represents a price markup of 4,410 percent, justified by their claim that “Most [the coins] have long disappeared . . . They’re sure to make a treasured gift or legacy.”

It didn’t take much investigation to discover that the “Wheat Back” bronze pennies, minted from 1909 through 1958, were produced in quantities up to 30 million per day. With some of these still included among the more than 130 billion pennies currently in circulation, they’re yours for the plucking at a penny apiece—a zero percent markup. Admittedly, some of them, such as 28 million issued in 1909 and displaying the initials of the designer, Victor D. Brenner, retail at $10 apiece uncirculated—but don’t expect to find any of these included in the bag. What you will find are coins from the late 1930s through the final year of issue in 1958. One prominent coin dealer, American Rare Coin and Collectibles, LLC, of St. Paul, Minnesota, lists their value: “The common date ‘wheat cents’ circulated from the late 1930’s up to 1958 are worth 2 cents per coin. The Lincoln cents dated 1929 and earlier generally trade in the $0.05-$1.00 range, based on date, mintmark, and condition.”

A concluding thought:
There is a rule of thumb I’d like to pass on to you. If a vendor must issue an 8-page color brochure or full page newspaper advertisement describing how wonderful its investment offering is, you may reject it out of hand.